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AUTO TRANCE AND SPIRITUALISM 

Psychometry And Telepathy 



DREAMS. PREMONITIONS. PSYCHOSCOPY. 
SOUL SIGHT. CLAIRVOYANCE IN SPIRIT- 
UALISM. DREAMS FROM THE DEAD. 
SPIRIT MEDIUMS. TRANCE AD- 
DRESSES. SPIRIT PAINTINGS. 
CLAIRVOYANCE. 

By 

Dr. LfW.de Laurence 

If 

Author Of The Great Book Of Magical Art, Hindu 
Magic And East Indian Occultism. The Master Key. 
The Sacred Book Of Death And Hindu Spiritism. The 
Mystic Test Book Of The Hindu Occult Chambers. 
The Wonders Of The Magic Mirror. Crystal Gazing 
And Clairvoyance. Astral Auras And Colors. The 
Immanence Of God, Know Thyself. God, The Bible, 
Truth And Christian Theology. Medical Hypnosis 
And Magnetic Hypnotism. Manual Of Disease And 
Modern Medicine. Valmondi; The Old Book Of 
Ancient Mysteries. The Dead Man's Home, Etc., Etc. 

de Laurence, Scott 6? Co. 
Chicago, 111., U. S. A. 













^ 



H 




NOTICE — This work is protected by Copyright, and simui- 
taneous initial publications in United States of America, Great 
Britain, France, Germany, Russia, India, China and other coun- 
tries. All rights reserved. 



\Vd 



1. 



^ 



^ 




^-lO 




DEC -5 1916 

CI.A445955 



CONTEN TS 



PAGE 

Preface, .___------ 5 

Chapter I. — Somnambulism and Psychic Phenomena, 9 

The Hypnotic, Mesmeric, And The Psychic States, 
Hypnotism A Curative Agent; The Sixth Sense; 
Dreams, Premonitions ; Double And Psychic Conscious^ 
ness. Evidences Of the Soul Within Us. 

Chapter IL — Clairvoyance, - - - - - - 23 

Psychoscopy, Or Soul Sight, Spiritual Faculty, Exhib- 
ited By Religious Ecstatics, Not A Common Possession. 
How Cultivated. The Opinions And Evidence Of Men 
Of Science. Second Sight. The Utility Of Soul-Sight. 

Chapter III. — Clairvoyance Illustrated, - - - 33 

Classified. Strange Story Of The Chicago Water Sup- 
ply, Lost Goods Restored. An Aid To The Physician. 
Experiments In Rothesay. Remarkable Clairvoyants. 
Clairvoyance In Mesmerism And In Spiritualism. 

Chapter IV. — Psychometry, ------ 53 

Soul-Measuring And Soul-Measures. Dr. Buchanan's 
Discoveries. Professor Denton*s Experiments. Detec- 
tive's Clues; What Psychometry Can Do. Testimony 
Of Mr. Stead And The Rev. Minot J. Savage. Disease 
Detected, and Character Gauged By This Faculty. 

3 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



Chapter V. — Thought-Transference and Mental Te- 
lepathy, -------__ 58 

Explained And Defined. Transference Of Taste In 
Mesmerism. Thought-Transference, In Dreams, From 
The Dying To the Living ; The Dead To The Living ; In 
Prayer; In Ordinary Experience. Incidents And Expe- 
riences, etc. Mark Twain, Hudson Tuttle, And Dr. 
Hilden. 



Chapter VI. — Thought-Reading Experiments, - - 86 

Thought And Muscle-Reading Distinguished, Project- 
ting Mental Pictures. Normal Exeriments, Without 
Contact, By Professor Lodge, Mr. Guthrie, And Profes- 
sor Barrett. Some Practical Suggestions. Muscle- 
Reading Entertainments. Directions. 

Chapter VII. — Spiritualism, - loo 

"How To Thought-Read'* And Phenomenal Spiritual- 
ism. The Spirit Within Us. The Rejection Of The 
Psychic. The Fraudulent In Spiritualism. Spiritualism 
Without Spirits. Thought-Reading By Spirits And 
Mediums. 



Chapter VIII. — Phenomenal Spiritualism, - - - 113 

Automatic Writing. A Test Medium. Trance Addresses. 
A Direct Spirit-Painting. Reflections And Speculations. 
Testimony Of Cromwell F. Varley, F.R.S., The Elec- 
trician. 



l^vtfutt 



This work is intended to cover such intensely in- 
teresting subjects as Thought-Transference, Mental 
Telepathy, Clairvoyance, Psychometry, Hypnotism 
and Spiritualism. 

Thought-reading is duly considered and explained. 
A clear distinction is drawn between Musculation, or 
Muscle and Mind-Reading ; and although these pages 
are not confined to Thought-Reading, as generally un- 
derstood by the public, the subject itself, and as an 
entertainment, have been most fully dealt with. 

During the past decade, psychological subjects have, 
in a remarkable way, arrested public attention. ''Mes- 
merism'' and ''Spiritualism" are popular subjects with 
editors and magazine writers. Whatever the real 
causes — a greater influx of the spiritual from "the 
state of the dead," or from a reaction in the minds of 
men against the purblind materialism of our scientific 
leaders — it is hard to say. Possibly these and other 
causes have been at work. One thing is certain, for 
good or ill, the majority of thinking men and women 
of the age are not only interested in, but are actually 
searching for evidence of "embodied spirit" Hence 
we find men of science, journalists, and even professed 
materialists and secularists, who, a few years ago, 
could scarcely speak of these subjects in the ordinary 
language of courtesy, confess now not only their be- 
lief, but are going to the other extreme of advocating, 
what as yet, they have failed to fully grasp. 

A few years ago "The British Parliament of Sci- 
ence" was nothing if not materialistic. The leading 

5 



6 PREFACE 

savants of the day declared ''all was matter, no matter 
what/' Consequently, man was the highest product 
of protoplasm, and his only destiny the grave. The 
change has been great indeed, when one of its most 
brilliant members, Professor Oliver Lodge, DSc, 
F.RS., British Association at Cardiff, j8pi, in his 
address said : 

"It is familiar that a thought may be excited in the 
brain of another person, transferred thither from our 
brain by pulling a suitable trigger ; by liberating energy 
in the form of sound, for instance, or by the mechan- 
ical act of writing, or in other ways. A prearranged 
code, called language, and a material medium of com- 
munication, are recognized methods. May there not, 
also, be an immaterial, perhaps an ethereal, medium of 
communication? Is it possible that an idea can be 
transferred from one person to another by a mental 
process such as we have not yet grown accustomed to, 
and know practically nothing about? In this case I 
have evidence. I assert I have seen it done, and am 
perfectly convinced of the fact; many others are satis- 
fied of the truth, too. It is, perhaps, a natural conse- 
quence of the community of life or family relationship 
running through all living beings. The transmission 
of life may he likened in some ways to the transmission 
of magnetism, and all magnets are sympathetically con- 
nected, so that, if suitably suspended, a vibration from 
one disturbs others, even though they he distant 
p 2, 000, 000 miles. It is sometimes objected that, 
granting Thought-Transference or Telepathy to be a 
fact, it belongs more especially to lower forms of life, 
and that as the cerebral hemispheres develop we be- 
come independent of it; that what we notice is the 
relic of a decaying faculty, not the germ of a new and 
fruitful sense, and that progress is not to be made by 
studying or alluding to it. As well might the objection 
be urged against a study of embryology. It may, on 



PREFACE 7 

the other hand, be an indication of a higher mode of 
communication, which shall survive our temporary con- 
nection with ordinary matter. The whole region is un- 
explored territory, and it is conceivable that matter 
may react on mind in a way we can at present only 
dimly imagine." 

Thought-Transference and Telepathy may, indeed, 
be an indication of a higher mode of communication 
between human beings after we have severed our tem- 
porary connection with matter. Whether or not, the 
hope should repay our study. I have in the following- 
pages to briefly define and illustrate what these phases 
of communication are. 

Double and Psychic Consciousness, Clairvoyance, 
natural and induced; Psychometry, its natural and 
leading features as a spiritual faculty; Thought-Trans- 
ference, visions, dreams, and their portents, are in turn 
briefly dealt with, in order to extract therefrom some 
evidence of the action of the human soul. 

Modern Spiritualism is referred to, in so far as 
Thought-Reading is likely to throw any light upon its 
psychological phases, as well as on its physical phe- 
nomena. 

While attempting to cover so much ground my diffi- 
culty was not what to write, but what not to write, 
the materials at my disposal being so abundant. Much 
has been cut down to get the whole within reasonable 
compass. Nevertheless, I know the reader will find 
this book a most valuable work on the above subject. 

Dr. L. W, de Laurence, 






CHAPTER I. 

SOMNAMBULISM 
AND PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

Before entering upon the subject of '^Clairvoyance 
AND Thought-Transference"' — or rather, range of 
interesting subjects grouped under this title — it is pro- 
posed to deal briefly with the ''Key'' to the whole, 
which is to be found in the revelations of man's inner 
life, soul-life and character, presented by Somnam- 
bulism and Trance, whether natural or induced. 

The use of a few simple terms having a well-defined 
meaning will help the reader and prepare him for the 
more careful study of the psychic side of human life. 

The somnambulistic and trance states may be 
divided, for the convenience of examination, into the 
Hypnotic, or state of hypnosis; the Mesmeric, or som- 
nambulistic ; and the Psychic, or lucid somnambulistic — 
or briefly, the Hypnotic, Mesmeric and Psychic states. 

The operator is the controlling agent, Hypnotist, or 
Mesmerist; in spiritualism, the guide or control. 

The sensitive is the subject, the percipient, psychic, 
patient, or person who passes into the hypnotic, mes- 
meric, or trance states, etc. 

Hypnosis is the term used for the hypnotic state arti- 
ficially induced by the agent. Hypnosis is the lowest 

9 



10 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

rung of the ladder ; the psychic or soul state the high- 
est. The intermediate phases, as indicated in conscious 
or sub-conscious conditions of life, are innumerable 
and not readily classified. Still, the states mentioned 
will give a favorable insight to the whole. In hypnosis, 
physical rather than mental phenomena are evolved; 
ancesthesia, or non-sensitiveness to pain, is more or less 
present. The senses of smell and hearing are partially 
exalted, and the sensitive may be partially or wholly 
unconscious. 

The mesmeric state is the term frequently used to 
denote ordinary artificial somnambulism. It is actually 
the higher or more perfect form of hypnosis. The 
senses in this state are more fully submerged, and the 
mental faculties are more fully exalted, than in 
hypnosis. 

The psychic state, as the mesmeric, relates to the 
mental, and hypnosis to the more physical, so does the 
psychic state refer to that class of extraordinary som- 
nambulism in which the mental and the spiritual gifts 
transcend in character and power those of the fore- 
going states. In this state the higher phenomena of 
lucid somnambulism, clairvoyance, and thought-trans- 
ference are manifested more perfectly than in any 
other. 

The Hypnotic, the Mesmeric, and the Psychic states 
indicated are frequently interlinked in manifestation. 
The sensitive may pass from the first to the last with- 
out apparent gradation. It is well to keep these 
divisions in thought, so that in practice no one will be 
content with the lower where it is possible, by wise and 
judicious observations and operations, to induce the 
higher. 

To make the matter still more clear, in hypnosis and 
in the mesmeric state all phenomena may be said to 
be induced through and by the influence and the direc- 
tion of the operator. Not that he produces the effects 



PSYCHIC PHENOMENA ii 

as they are exhibited by the sensitive, but they are 
brought about through the agency of his suggestions 
or operations. 

In the psychic state this is not always the case. The 
influence of the operator may at times be almost nil. 
The operator will find it best — when the sensitive is in 
a high lucid state — to become an observer and a 
learner, and no longer continue the role of director. 

In the psychic state, the soul-powers, so often sub- 
merged in ordinary life, transcend in a remarkable 
manner. The senses are completely suspended and the 
mind exalted to such a degree, a clearly defined super- 
sensuous condition is reached. Whether this stage or 
condition is induced by fasting, prayer, disease, or by 
mesmeric agencies, matters little. In it we find the key 
to the seershi2, and the clairvoyance, and the prophetic 
utterance, and the mystic powers attributed to and ex- 
ercised by prophet, and seer, and syb il in the past. By 
the investigati6n of the phenomena evolved by the 
psychic state we are enabled to understand something 
of man's soul or spiritual nature, apart from the phe- 
nomena induced by pathological conditions of brain 
and body. 

The foregoing view presented of mesmeric condi- 
tions may be very different from that which medical 
men may glean from hypnotic practice with hysterical 
and lobsided patients, and certainly not the views 
which the general public are likely to gather from see- 
ing a number of paid "subjects'* knocked about a music 
hall stage by an ignorant showman. 

From the roughest to the finest, from matter to 
spirit, from hypnosis to the psychic state, we find 
enough to arrest attention and give a high degree of 
seriousness and earnestness to our investigation. We 
stand on the threshold of soul, and the place where we 
stand is holy ground; We find, as is the physical, men- 
tal, and spiritual characteristics of the operator, plus 



12 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

those of the sensitive or sensitives, so will be the na- 
ture of the phenomena evolved. 

It will be observed some subjects never get beyond 
the first state, or hypnosis; others that of the second, 
or mesmeric. All sensitives, in keeping with their 
temperamental and mental developments (as revealed 
by phrenology and psychometry), are better adapted 
for one class of phenomena than that of others. 

It may be further observed that the foregoing states 
may be self -induced or, directly and indirectly, the 
product of "spirit-control," drugs, or bodily disease. 
Hypnosis, we must bear in mind, although not unlike 
the mesmeric state, has no more relation to that con- 
dition than sleep produced by an exhaustive walk or a 
dose of laudanum is like natural or healthy sleep. In-^ 
deed, hypnosis is not properly a condition of sleep. In 
the majority of cases the sensitive is nej^er wholly _un- 
con^^ious. It is rather a state in which there is^a 
temporary perve rsion o r subordination between brain 
impressions and^onscidtrsness: Th^^sensitive in hyp- 
nosis is often less intelligent than in the normal or 
waking state. 

For various reasons the state of hypnosis may be 
recognized as that state in which the mind is subjected 
to certain abnormal conditions of the body, notably of 
the brain, spinal cord, and indirectly of the circulation, 
induced by certain means determined upon by the 
operator. The mental condition in this state is one of 
almost pure automatism, in which hallucination or 
sense illusions are more or less present. 

Great and serious are the responsibilities of those 
who bring about the state of hypnosis. Every thought 
and feeling, of whatever kind, infused in this state, like 
seed, will take root and germinate, and finally bud into 
action in the daily or waking consciousness, and deter- 
mine unconsciously for the sensitive the character of 
his life. HYPNOTISM is neither for indiscriminate 



PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 13 

use, nor is hypnosis to be induced as a plaything for the 
thoughtless — medical or lay. At the same time, in the 
hands of the thoughtful, its educative value is most 
important, for, if the operator is well poised, and feels 
that, he can impart higher thoughts and strengthen the 
"^will of the sensitives by the twofold agencies of im- 
pressionability and suggestion. This is something not 
to be despised. It is surely no degradation to be saved 
from evils one cannot overcome or resist, unless 
assisted by external aid, even though that help can only 
come by submitting to hypnotism. 

In hypnosis the outer brain of convoluted grey mat- 
ter is most affected, being more or less denuded of 
arterial and nervous stimuli. The power of conscious, 
intellectual, and abstract thought is reduced to a mini- 
mum. The organs of the central brain are differently 
influenced, as in inverse ratio the stimulation is in- 
creased. The eye is more susceptible to light, or the 
pupils may become dilated and fixed. The auditory 
sense is rendered more keen. The olfactory powers 
are intensified, and there is more or less insensibility 
of feeling. The powers of co-ordination and locomo- 
tion are preserved up to a certain stage, w^hen these 
functions are disturbed, all power of voluntary move- 
ment ceases, lethargic and cataleptic symptoms 
supervene. 

It was by observing, more particularly, hypnosis. 
Professor Heidenhain was led to aver ''inhibition" 
actually accounted for all phases of hypnotism. This 
opinion has evidently been based on a limited number 
of cases. ''No inhibition," says Dr. Drayton, "however 



* In this way evil habits, such as errotic mania, opium 
eating, dipsomania, etc., may be cured. When the strength 
of the vice and the deterioration of the brain and body are 
such as to undermine the will of the patient, hypnotism, 
properly employed, may be used and recognized as a power- 
ful and legitimate curative agent. 



V 



14 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

ingeniously applied, will explain all the phenomena of 
magnetism. If the personal consciousness, the in- 
dividualty, of the subject has been lost, and his state is 
that of automatism, or rather that of an involuntary 
actor, certainly his cerebral functions operate in a man- 
ner entirely distinct from that which is characteristic 
in his ordinary state. The inhibition relates to his com- 
mon order of conduct mentally, while the super-sen- 
sitivity and extraordinary play of faculty that he may 
exhibit, indicate a higher phase of sensory activity, 
more free or harmonious co-ordination of the cerebral 
functions. The brakes are off, hence the phenomena 
that are frequently observed in the somnambulist, and 
awaken wonder, because so much out of keeping with 
,vhat is known of his common life." 

Here we find doctors — experts in hypnotism or mes- 
merism — agree to differ. They agree in this, albeit 
not expressly stated, they are alike positive and decided 
in their views, and certainly without being positive, 
there is no possible success as an operator. 

The mistake they make evidently arises in confound- 
ing the two states, hypnosis and the mesmeric, one with 
the other. There is no super-sensitivity, or extraordi- 
nary play of faculty in hypnosis, whatever there may 
be in the mesmeric state. They are similar, in that 
they may be both induced by the reduction of the ac- 
tivity of the cerebral cortex. 

In hypnosis the mind slumbers and dreams. The 
dream-life appears as substantial to the sensitive as the 
waking life. The life creations, thus dreamed of, are 
acted upon, whether they arise from suggestion or 
other causes. 

In the mesmeric state the senses slumber, and the 
mind awakens to a fuller enfranchisement of existence, 
and to the exhibition of mental and spiritual powers not 
hitherto suspected. 

In the lower stages the increased power of the senses 



PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 15 

is to be found in the intense concentration of effort, 
brought about from the fact that the subject's atten- 
tion is, and his whole energies are, directed in one line 
of action of thought, to the exclusion of mind or 
brain activity in other directions. Hence all efforts 
are centred in the direction suggested by the operator, 
or self induced, as suggested by the "dominant idea." 

The sensitive exhibits powers of mind and ability of 
thought which were not noticeable in the ordinary wak- 
ing condition. Not because he really possesses greater 
powers of mind or body, but because of the lack of con- 
centration in the waking state. By this concentration 
of direction, so called abnormal feats of strength are 
performed, rigidity of structure brought about, and 
other characteristics not peculiar to common life. In a 
higher sense, we see the sensitive passing from this con- 
dition of concentration of one-idea-ism to a spiritual 
state, in which the phenomena exhibited are no longer 
the product of self -dethronement and of suggestion. 
Higher still, we see the soul reign supreme. The sen- 
sitive possesses a clear consciousness of what is tran- 
spiring at home and abroad, according to the direction 
of his psychic powers. 

In the psychic state — ^the more perfect trance state or 
control — the whole mind becomes illumined ; past, pres- 
ent, and future become presentable to the mind of the 
lucid somnambulist as one great whole. This higher 
stage may be reached through the simple processes of 
manipulation, and passes as suggested in my little work, 
"How to Mesmerise." 

In the mesmeric state the sensitive passes from the 
mere automatism of the earlier stages of hypnosis to 
the distinct individuality indicated above, although still 
more or less influenced or directed by his controller 
or operator into the line of thought and train of actions 
most desired. 

The difference between the Hypnotic and Mesmeric 



ma 



i6 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

states should now be very clear. In the former the 
sensitive has no identity, in the latter his identity is 
preserved in a clearly individualised form throughout 
the whole series of abnormal acts. Whenever the sen- 
sitive enters this condition his personal consciousness 
is most apparent in the middle and higher stages. 

In fact, in the mesmeric state, it is very stupid for 
some operators to ask the sensitive, ''Are you asleep f' 
It may be understood what is meant, yet the question 
is absurd from the standpoint of an intelligent ob- 
server. The sensitive is never more awake. The higher 
the state the greater the wakefulness and lucidity of 
the inner or soul life. 

The Sixth Sense. 

In the ''Mesmeric State'' we see developed the "mag- 
netic sense'' — or "sixth sense," It is a gift of super- 
sensitiveness. To my mind it is the enfranchisement 
of the soul, the human ego — in proportion as the domi- 
nance of the senses is arrested. 

In blindness, it has been noticed how keen the sense 
of touch becomes. I have also noticed the keen sen- 
sitiveness of facial perception enjoyed by some of the 
blind, by which they are enabled to perceive objects 
in the absence of physical sight. In the mesmeric 
state we see a somewhat analogous mental condition. 
As the peculiar sense of the blind is developed by extra 
concentration of the mind in the direction of facial 
perception, so is "the sixth sense" developed by con- 
centration of direction, as well as by the condition of 
sensitiveness induced by the mesmeric state. 
. - This newly recognised sense, "the sixth sense," not 
^ j only answers the purpose of si^l^^: and hearing, but 
transcends all senses in vividness and power. Ma- 
terialists, no longer able to ignore the phenomena of 
somnambulism and trance, and compelled to admit 



I 



f 



PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 17 

man's avenues of knowledge in this life were not con- 
fined to the recognised five senses, are good enough to 
give him a ''sixth sense/' even while they deny him a 
soul. In the same way, no longer able to deny the 
existence of mesmerism, they now admit it to con- 
sideration — re-baptised as hypnotism. The phenom- 
ena being admitted, we will not quarrel over the names 
by which they are called. 

Psychic-Consciousness 

As we advance in our investigations we find in the 
higher conditions of these states a double or treble 
consciousness or memory. The higher including and 
overlapping the lower. Thus the consciousness of the 
hypnotic state includes that of the waking state, while 
the memory of the waking state possesses no conscious 
recollection of what has taken place in hypnosis, and 
so on, each stage has its own phases of consciousness. 
The memory of the sensitive, under influence, over 
lapping and including the memory of ordinary or nor- 
mal life. 

Strange as it may appear, there are no phenomena 
which have been evolved in any of these abnormal con- 
ditions of life, which have not been observed again and 
again in ordinary or normal life, as well authenticated 
instances of dreams, warnings, and telepathy testify. 

In dreams and visions of the night, spirits have 
manifested themselves to man in all ages. In other 
words, the soul (in sleep and analogous states to som- 
nambulism and trance) comes more in touch with the 
sub-conscious or soul sphere of thought and existence. 
At times there is an inrush from that sphere into 
man's present conscious state, by which he knows of 
things which could not otherwise be known. Of 
dreams, my space will not admit more than occasional 
reference. I may mention as a case in point the dream 



i8 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

of Mrs. Donan, wife of the livery stableman from 
whom Dr. Cronin hired his horse in Chicago, A 
week before Dr, Cronin was murdered this lady had a 
dream-vision, and dreamt he was barbarously mur- 
dered, and saw in a vision the whole terrible scene. 
This dream was a means, first, of forewarning the 
doctor, and second, of leading to the detection of the 
miscreants. 

Of premonitions, an incident reported in the Regis- 
ter of Adelaide, will suffice : ^'Constable J. C. H. Wil- 
liams has reported to headquarters that he had an un- 
pleasant experience at about midnight on Monday. He 
was on duty at the government offices in King William 
Street, and while standing at the main entrance he had 
a presentiment that he was in danger, and walked 
away a few steps. Scarcely had he moved from the 
spot, when a portion of the cornice work at the top of 
the building fell w^ith a crash on the place where he 
had been standing. The piece of plaster must have 
weighed fully a stone, and had it struck Williams the 
result would doubtless have been fatal. A passer-by 
saw the constable a few minutes after, and his scared 
looks and agitated manner clearly showed that his 
story was true.'' Concerning telepathy, Mrs. Andrew 
Crosse, the distinguished widow of the famous elec- 
trician, relates in Temple Bar an anecdote about the 
late Bishop Wilberforce, to the effect, the Bishop was 
writing a dry business letter one day, when a feeling 
of acute mental agony overcame him and he felt that 
some evil had befallen his favourite son, a midship- 
man in the navy. The impression was correct. Qn 
that very day the lad, who was with his ship in the 
Pacific, had been wounded and nearly bled to death. 
When this was told Hallam, the historian, he replied 
that a very similar thing had happened to himself. A 
few cases are noted further on. Some persons would 
repudiate all such incidents as accidents or coinci- 



PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 19 

dences; while others would fly to the extreme, and de- 
clare all such are the result of "spirit control" — that 
is, some disembodied but friendly spirit projected the 
dream, conveyed the warning, or telepathically des- 
patched the news. But we must never forget news has 
to be received as well as despatched. Consequently, 
we, as embodied spirits, must possess psychic con- 
sciousness. 

I believe that much of the phenomena, directly and 
indirectly attributed to disincarnate spirit control, are 
traceable to no other source than the powers of our 
own embodied spirits, as revealed by the facts of som- 
nambulism and trance, and this is the opinion of all in- 
telligent spiritualists. 

"Because," says Mr. G. H. Stebbins, a prominent 
investigator of modern spiritualism in the United 
States, "a person quotes from books he never saw, or 
tells of what he never knew in any external way, that 
is not final proof that he is under an external spirit 
control. Psychometry and Clairvoyance may some- 
times solve it all." 

"I hold," says Mr. Myers, "that telepathy and clair- 
voyance do, in fact, exist — Telepathy, a communication 
between incarnate mind and incarnate mind, and per- 
haps between incarnate minds and minds unembodied ; 
clairvoyance, a knowledge of things terrene which 
over-passes the limits of ordinary perception, and 
which, perhaps, achieves an insight with some other 
than terrene world." 

These are the cautious admissions of eminent inves- 
tigators in psychical research. 

Double Or Sub-Consciousness. » 

"There are two sets/' says Dr. Brown-Sequard, "a 
double state of mental powers in the human organism, 
essentially differing from each other. The one may 



20 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

be designated as ordinary conscious intelligence; the 
other, a superior power, which controls our better 
nature." 

J. Balfour Brown, in his ''Medical Jurisprudence/' 
says: *'In no case of pure somnambulism, waking 
consciousness of the individual knows anything of the 
sleeping consciousness. It is as if there were two 
distinct memories." 

This double consciousness, memory, or sub-state of 
mental powers, is another but lower phase of psychic- 
consciousness, and is sometimes exhibited by accidents, 
and also by disease. 

Dr. Abercromby relates the case of a boy, four 
years old who was trepanned for a fracture of the 
skull. He was in a complete stupor during the opera- 
tion, and was not conscious of what took place. At 
fifteen he became seriously ill of fever. In the de- 
lirium occasioned by the fever, he gave a correct de- 
scription of the operation, and of all the persons pres- 
ent, their dress, manners, and actions, to the minutest 
particulars. The "superior power" must have obtained 
this knowledge in some other way than through the 
ordinary channels of the outward senses. 

In cases of apparent drowning, where the person has 
been saved from death by active, external help, we have 
been informed that the human mind has worked with a 
rapidity of action not thought possible in the waking 
state, the intensity of mental action being increased in 
adverse ratio to the inaction of the external senses 
and consciousness. In this state the career of a life- 
time has been reviewed, conversations, actions, per- 
sons seen and places visited, all vividly brought to 
mind — in possibly less time than it takes to pen this 
paragraph. These phenomena suggest the reflection 
that the daily waking life — sensuous and worldly- 
minded — is possibly, to many, the least real and effec- 
tive, f How much our external life is influenced by 



PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 21 

our unconscious (to us in the waking state) sub-life, 
is an interesting problem?- — 

Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes says: '^The more we 
examine the mechanism of thought, the more we shall 
see that the automatic and unconscious action of the 
mind enters largely into all its processes ^ We all have 
a double who is wiser and better than we, who puts 
thoughts into our heads and words into our mouths." 

A commercial gentleman of my acquaintance, who 
was rather sceptical on the subject of double-cjon- 
sciousness — although, ''notwithstanding,'' he said, 
''Mr. Stead, in the Review of Reviews, had turned an 
honest penny out of ghosts, double-consciousness, and 
that sort of rubbish'' — admitted to me, he had a maid, 
who had an awkward habit of rising in her sleep, care- 
fully setting the fires, cleaning and dusting out the 
rooms, setting the breakfast table, and doing many 
other things which appeared important to the servant- 
mind. Her movements were watched. She slipped 
about with eyes closed, avoiding obstacles, and doing 
her work systematically and neatly, and without fuss, 
when done, she would go to bed. In the morning she 
had no recollection of what she had said or done. It 
was a curious thing, he had to admit. The girl was 
honest enough. He was certain this habit had not been 
stimulated. Threats of discharge, and possible loss of 
wages, did not cure her of this habit. There was a 
certain form of "double consciousness" in this case. 

"The subliminal consciousness" of Mr. Myers, by 
which he accounts for the phenomena of genius, is but 
another way of expressing the concept of an "identity 
underlying all consciousness," the psyche, the real "I, 
me," "the superior power which directs and controls 
our better nature," the "double who is wiser and bet- 
ter than we," the reality of which is so much hidden 
from our ordinary experience, because our soul-life 
is so much buried out of sight by the debris of the 



22 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

''things of this life/' which, fortunately or otherwise, 
pre-occupy so much of our attention. 

It is this ''subliminal consciousness'* we see mani- 
fested in the psychic state, and natural somnartibulism. 
Clairvoyance y Psychometry, Thought-Transference, 
etc., are as so many spectrum rays of the one soul 
light. Call them "subliminal" if you will. These rays 
flow out from the soul, and are many-hued, distinct 
or blurred, according to the degree of pureness or 
super-sensitivity of the external corporeal prism 
through which they are projected. 

Persons have lived for years, we are credibly in- 
formed, who have spent half their lives entranced, in 
the alternation of two distinct individualities or two 
distinct states of consciousness, in one of which they 
forget all they had learned or did in the other. 

Professor Huxley described (British Association of 
Science, Belfast, 18/4) a case in which two separate 
lives, a normal, and abnormal one, seemed to be lived at 
intervals by the same individual during the greater por- 
tion of her life. 

The conclusion to the whole matter is — ^the psychic, 
or soul-powers in some persons are less entrammelled 
by the senses than in others; that a high degree of 
organic sensitiveness always accompanies those who 
are recognised as psychics or sensitives ; that this state 
of sensitiveness is natural to some, and in others may 
be developed by accident, disease, or induced by som- 
nambulism and trance. 

I will endeavor to show these psychic characteristics, 
or soul gifts, underlie, and enter into the varied phe- 
nomena — Clairvoyance, Psychometry, Thought-Trans- 
ference, Thought-Reading, and what not, which are 
collated under the title of. Clairvoyance And 
Thought-Transference. 



CHAPTER II. 

CLAIRVOYANCE. 

What is Clairvoyance f The term ''Clairvoyance/' 
is French, and means clear-seeing, but it appears to me 
to be an inadequate term, because it might signify- 
clear optical vision, or clear mental vision. What is 
signified by the term is the power wh ich certain in- 
dividuals possess of seei ng external objects under cir- 
cumstances_w hiclri'encier the si^ht _QU:he se objects ' 
i mpossible to^physical optic s! In short, by^ Clairvoy- 
anccy I mean the power which the mind has of seeing 
or knowing thoughts and psychical conditions, and ob- 
jects hidden from or beyond the reach of the physical 
senses; and if the existence of this faculty can be es- 
tablished, we arrive at a demonstration that man has a 
power within his body as yet unrecognised by physical 
science — a power which is called soul, or mind-seeing, 
and for the description of such a power the term might 
be auto-nocticy or psychoscopy. Psychoscopy, or soul 
sight, would, perhaps, be the better term. I propose 
to use the old term — Clairvoyance — as it signifies, in 
popular usage, the power of seeing beyond the range 
of physical vision, as we know it. 

That certain persons are endowed with this faculty 
of clear seeing — in some of its various phases- — is a 
matter settled beyond dispute. What special name to 
call this faculty, or what are the true causes of its 
existence ; why it should be possessed by some persons 
and not by others ; why it should be so frail and fugitive 
in the presence of some people, and strong and vivid 
before others ; why some persons are never clairvoyant 

23 



24 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

until they have been through the mesmeric and psychic 
states; why some become possessed of the faculty 
through disease; while, with others, the gift of clair- 
voyance appears to be a spontaneous possession; and 
why some operators are successful in inducing Clair- 
voyance, and others not, etc., are interesting questions 
to which the student of psychology may, with advan- 
tage, direct his attention. 

Clairvoyance is soul-sight— the power of the soul to 
see. It is the state of refined psychic perception. This 
state increases in lucidity — clearness and power of 
penetration — in proportion as the activity of the phys - 
ical senses is reduced below normal action . It is 
observed to be most effective in the trance state — 
natural or induced — as in the mesmeric and psychic 
states. I conclude, then, clairvoyance depends upon 
the unfolding of the spirit's perception, and is increased 
in power as the ascendency of the spirit arises above 
the activities of the spirit's corporeal envelope — the 
body. In proportion to the spirit's ascendency over 
the organs and senses of the body, is this psychic gift 
perfect or imperfect. 

The large brain or cerebrum is the physical organ 
of the soul as the cerebellum is of the physiological 
brain functions. Mental functions are manifested by 
the former, and physical functions by the latter. 

Clairvoyance, as a spiritual faculty, will doubtless 
have its appropriate organ in the brain. I do not pro- 
fess to locate that organ. At the same time I have 
noticed the best clairvoyants are wide and full between 
the eyes, showing there is a particular fulness of the 
frontal cerebral lobes, at their juncture at the root of 
the nose. This may be something more than a mere 
physiognomic sign. When this sign is accompanied 
by refinement of organisation, and a fine type of brain, 
I always look for the possible manifestation of Clair- 
voyance in mesmeric subjects. 



CLAIRVOYANCE 25 

Some writers are of the opinion Clairvoyance is 
actually soul-sight, more or less retarded in lucidity 
by the action or activity of the body senses. Others 
believe it to be a state arising from a peculiar highly- 
strained nervous condition, which induces the state of 
super-sensitivity or impressionability of the organisa- 
tion. The first may be termed the spiritual, and the 
latter the physiological hypothesis. But, as a matter 
of fact, both conditions are noted. The latter may ac- 
count for much, and possibly is sufficient to explain 
much that is called thought-reading — so often mis- 
taken for clairvoyance. It does appear to me that cer- 
tain peculiar physiological conditions, varying from 
semi-consciousness to profound trance, are necessary 
for the manifestation of clairvoyance, even when it 
takes place in apparently normal life of the possessor. 

The ornate and mystic ceremonies indulged in by 
Hindu mystics^ Egyptian^ Grecian, and Roman priests, 
have the one grand end in view — ^viz., to induce the 
requisite state of super-sensitivity, and thus prepare 
the consecrated youths, sybils, and vestal virgins for 
the influx of spiritual vision, prophecy, and what not. 
When this subtle influx came — by whatever name called 
— the phenomena manifested were pretty much the 
same as we know them, only varied in degree. The 
gods spoke per oracle, Pythean, or Delphic, The man 
of God either coronated a king or foretold the end of 
a dynasty. St. Stephen saw Christ, St. John beheld 
visions, Joan of Arc was directed, Swedenhorg illumi- 
nated, and religious ecstatics in ancient and modern 
times partook more or less of the sacred fire — the inner 
sight. This (stripped of the fantastic surroundings, 
priestly mummeries, and dominant belief of the times) 
simply indicated the evolution and exercise of clair- 
voyance and other psychic gifts. 

Coming nearer home, we hear of the mysterious 
visions at the Knock, and at Lourdes. Miraculous ap- 



a6 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

pearances of the Virgin and winged angels, to cheer 
the hearts of the faithful, and to cause the heads of 
the scornful to rejoice in sceptical derision. Then we 
have all the vagaries produced by the high nervous 
tension of modern revivalisms, in which the visions 
seen are but a transformation of church and chapel 
dogmas into objective realities. These illusionary 
visions — ^mistaken for Clairvoyance — ^possess less re- 
ality than the delusive fancies of the sensitive in the 
state of hypnosis. 

Clairvoyance will be governed by its own spiritual 
laws, just as sight is affected or retarded by physical 
conditions. What these spiritual laws are many can 
only surmise, but this they may safely conjecture — viz., 
that soul-sight is not trammelled or limited by the 
natural laws which govern physical optics. Clairvoy- 
ance and physical vision are absolutely distinct, and 
possess little in common. 

To illustrate a new subject, it is permissible to draw 
upon the old and the well-known. So I venture to 
illustrate clairvoyance by certain facts in connection 
with ordinary human vision. Although some child- 
ren see better than others, the power to see, with the 
ability to understand the relative positions and uses 
of the things seen, is a matter of development. In 
psychic vision, we also see growth or development, 
with increasing power to use and understand the fac- 
ulty. Some children are blind from birth, and others, 
seeing, lose the power of sight. Many are blind, al- 
though they have physical sight, they see not with the 
educated eye. Many, again, have greater powers of 
sight than they are aware of. And so it is with psy- 
chic vision. 

What is true of the physical is also true of the psy- 
chic. From the first glimmerings, to the possession of 
well-defined sight, a period of growth and time 
elapses. From the first incoherent cry of infancy to 



CLAIRVOYANCE 27 

well defined and intelligent speech of manhood, we 
notice the same agencies at work. Not only is Clair- 
voyant vision generally imperfect at first, but the psy- 
chic's powers of description are also at fault. St. Paul 
could not give utterance to what he saw, when caught 
up to the third heavens. His knowledge of things and 
powers of speech failed him to describe the startling, 
the new, and the unutterable. He had a sudden revela- 
tion of the state of things in a sphere which had no 
counterparts in his previous experience, in this — ^his 
known — world. Hence, although he knew of his 
change of state, he could give no lawful or intelligible 
expression to his thoughts. 

Between the first incongruous utterances, and ap- 
parent fantastic blunderings, and the more mature 
period in which ''things spiritual'' can be suitably de- 
scribed in our language, to our right sense of things, 
or comprehension, a period of development and edu- 
cation must elapse. It is true some clairvoyants de- 
velop much more readily than others. 

In the entrancement of the Mesmeric and Psychic 
states, there is a lack of external consciousness. The 
soul is so far liberated from the body as to act inde- 
pendently of the ordinary sensuous conditions of the 
body, and sees by the perception and light of the inner 
or spiritual world, as distinct from the perception and 
light of this external or physical world. Elevated, or 
rather, liberated into this new condition, the clairvoy- 
ant loses connection with the thrums and threads of 
the physical organism, and is unable, or forgets for a 
time, how to speak of things as they are, or as they 
would appear to the physical vision of another. It is 
not surprising that in the earlier stages of Clairvoyant 
development, and consequent transfer of ordinary con- 
sciousness and sensuous perception to that of spiritual 
consciousness and perception, the language of the Clair- 
voyant should appear peculiar, incongruous, and ' Vant- 



28 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

ing" according to our ideas of clearness and precision. 

One important lesson may be learned from this — 
viz., the operator should never force results, or strive 
to develop psychic perception by short cuts. Time must 
be allowed to the sensitive, for training and experience, 
and the development of self-confidence and expression. 

Clairvoyance is not a common possession. Neverthe- 
less, I believe there any many persons who possess the 
faculty unknown to themselves. By following out 
patiently, for a time, the requisite directions, the pos- 
session of this invaluable psychic gift might be dis- 
covered by many who now appear totally devoid of 
any Clairvoyant indications. Its cultivation is pos- 
sible and, in many ways, desirable. 

'The higher attainment of Occult knowledge and 
power, the development of intuition, the psychometric 
senses, Clairvoyant Vision, inner hearing, etc., etc., 
thus reached, so open the avenues to a higher educa- 
tion, and enlarge the boundaries of human conscious- 
ness and activity, as to fairly dwarf into insignificance 
the achievements of external science." 

Clairvoyance is as old as mankind, but the exhibi- 
tion of Clairvoyance, induced by mesmeric processes, 
was first announced, outside of India by Puysegeur, 
a favorite pupil of Mesmer, in 1784. Since that time 
to the present day not only have remarkable cases of 
clairvoyance cropped up, in Europe and America, but 
there have been few mesmerists of any experience who 
have not had numerous cases under observation. Clair- 
voyance converted Dr. John Elliotson, F. R. S., one 
of the most scientific of British physicians, from ex- 
treme materialistic views to that of belief in soul and 
immortality. The same may be said of the late Dr. 
Ashburner, who was one of the Queen's physicians. 
Dr. Georget, author of ''Physiology of the Nervous 
System/' — who was at one time opposed to a belief in 
the existence of a transcendental state in man, — found 



CLAIRVOYANCE 29 

upon examination of the facts and incidents of arti- 
ficial somnambulism, that his materialism must go. In 
his last will and testament, referring to the above-men- 
tioned works, he says: "This work had scarcely ap- 
peared, when renewed meditations on a very extra- 
ordinary phenomenon, somnambulism, no longer per- 
mitted me to entertain doubts of the existence within 
us, and external to us, of an intelligent principle, alto- 
gether different from material existences; in a word, 
of the soul of God. With respect to this I have a pro- 
found conviction, founded upon facts which I believe 
to be incontestable.'' ''Dr. Georget directed this 
change of opinion should have full publicity after his 
death. 

Space would not suffice me to mention the names of 
all the highly educated and refined minds, in the med- 
ical, literary, philosophic, and scientific walks of life, 
who have studied these phenomena, and who, like Dr. 
Georget, have no more doubts of their reality than 
they have of their own physical existence, status, or 
reputation. Among medical men — some of whom I 
have known and corresponded with — ^might be men- 
tioned Sir James Simpson, Drs. Elliotson, Ashhurner, 
Esdaile, Buss, Garth Wilkinson, Hands, Wyld, Hitch- 
man, Eadon, and Davey. Among others on the roll 
of fame, might be noticed "Archbishop Whately, Earls 
Ducie, Stanhope, Macclesfield, Charville; the present 
Duke of Argyle; Lord R. Cavendish, Lord Lindsay; 
Burton, the traveller; and the late Sergeant Cox. 
Among literary men, Mr. Gladstone, Britain's fore- 
most statesman and scholar ; Mr. Balfour, his able and 
talented opponent; Bulwer Lytton, Marryat, Neal, 
Robert Chambers, Dickens, and Stevenson, of ''Dr. 
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'' fame. Mr. George CombCj 
the distinguished Scottish metaphysician, philosopher, 
author, phrenologist, etc., was profoundly interested 
in the phenomena. Among well-known men of science 



30 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

might be mentioned Camillie Flammarion, the French 
astronomer; Fichte, the German philosopher; Profes- 
sors Tornebom and Edland, Swedish physicists ; Pro- 
fessor Oliver Lodge, D.Sc, F.R.S.; Alfred Russell 
Wallace, D,C.L., LL.D.; William Crookes, F.R.S.; 
Cromwell F. Varley, F.R.S. Notwithstanding this 
somewhat formidable array of investigators of Clair- 
voyance, many good people will not hesitate to deny 
the value of such evidence, and yet will believe any- 
thing in its favor which may be found in the Bible, 
as to its existence in the past. It is a strange per- 
version of judgment — not at all surprising — when the 
majority take (second-hand) for their religious (?) 
views whatever is recognised as "sound" in each par- 
ticular district and Church. It is not a question of 
belief, it is a ''question of evidence, '' as Mr, Gladstone 
avers. 

The Rev. Mr. M'Kinnon, late pastor of Chalmers' 
Free Church, Glasgow, told me a short time ago, 
^'Clairvoyance was nothing more than a high nervous 
concentrated form of mental vision," to which I re- 
plied, ''Admitting the hypothesis — which, however, ex- 
plained nothing — it matters little what Clairvoyance 
is esteemed to be or called, if the facts connected with 
it are acknowledged.'^ Even this friend admitted he 
knew a man in Mull, who lived on the half croft, next 
to his father's croft. This man had great repute in 
that district as "having the Second Sight/' Whatever 
this man foretold always came to pass. One instance 
will suffice. He (Mr. M'Kinnon) remembered that 
one day, while this crofter (who was a tailor by trade) 
was working, he suddenly stopped, and looked out into 
vacancy — as he always did when the "Second Sight 
was on him" — and described a funeral coming over the 
hill, the mourners, who they were and numbers, the 
way the procession took, and the name of the "man 
whose face was covered," and finally, when the pro- 



CLAIRVOYANCE 31 

cession would appear. Mr. M'Kinnon's parents noted 
the time, and being simple Highland folk, accustomed 
to the accuracy of this man's visions, they believed 
what he said, and kept his saying in their hearts till the 
time of fulfillment came about. Mr. M'Kinnon assured 
me ''the funeral took place to the day and hour, twelve 
months subsequently to the vision, as predicted." All 
I can say iSj if ''a high nervous concentrated form of 
mental vision" is capable of pointing out all this, it is 
worthy of investigation. It is evident this tailor at 
least had a power of vision — ^prevoyance — not of the 
ordinary, everyday kind of vision. Second sight, as 
exhibited in this case, is what may be termed spon- 
taneous clairvoyance. 

Epes Sargent, in his work, ''The Scientific Basis of 
Spiritualism/' referring to Clairvoyance, says: "As 
far as I have admitted it as part of a scientific basis 
(demonstrating man's spiritual nature), it is the exer- 
cise of the supersensual faculty of penetrating opaque 
and dense matter as if by the faculty of sight. But it 
does more. It detects our unuttered, undeveloped 
thoughts; it goes back along the past, and describes 
what is hidden; nay, the proofs are overwhelming 
that it may pierce the future, and predict coming 
events from the shadows they cast before. 

"WTiat is it that sees without the physical eyes, and 
without the assistance of light ? What is normal sight ? 
It is not the vibrating ether — it is not the external eye 
— that sees. It is the soul using the eye as an instru- 
ment, and light as a condition. Prove once that sight \ 
can exist without the use of light, sensation, or any \ 
physical organ of vision, and you prove an abnormal, ^ 
supersensual, spiritual faculty — a proof which puts an 
end to the theory x)f jnaterialism, and which, through 
its affinity with analogous or corresponding facts, jus- ' 
tifies its introduction as part of a scientific basis for the 
spiritual theory." 



32 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

/. F. Deleuze was profoundly convinced of the ex- 
istence of this faculty. He claimed that the power of 
seeing at a distance, prevision, and the transference 
of thought without the aid of external signs, were in 
themselves sufficient proofs of the existence of spiritu- 
ality of soul. 

Except in a very few instances, little or no pains 
are taken to cultivate the spiritual nature of man. 
Civilised man of to-day is hut rising out of the age of 
brute force of yesterday, and he is still circumscribed 
by love of earthly power and position. He is an ac- 
quisitive rather than a spiritual being. Being domi- 
nated by the senses, he will naturally seek and appre- 
ciate that which gratifies his senses most. He has lit- 
tle time or patience for anything which does not con- 
tribute pleasure to his sensuous nature. He would 
give time to the investigation of the soul side of life 
if it brought gold, the means of enjoyment, and grati- 
fied his acquisitiveness and love of power. Probably 
the majority give the subject no attention at all. If 
the spiritual side of men's natures were as fully culti- 
vated as those elements which bring them bread and 
butter and praise in the market-place, there is no doubt, 
no manner of doubt whatever, but the most of them 
would occupy a nobler and more spiritually elevated 
plane in life; and were adequate means taken, I doubt 
not but this faculty of clairvoyance would become more 
generally known and cultivated. Even to the selfish, 
worldly, and non-spiritual man, Clairvoyance is not 
without its practical side and utility, such, for instance, 
as supplying Chicago with water. To the spiritually 
minded. Clairvoyance and all psychic gifts are appre- 
ciated, less for what they will bring, than for the testi- 
mony they present of man's spiritual origin, trans- 
cendental powers and probable continuity of life beyond 
this mortal vale. 



CHAPTER III. 
CLAIRVOYANCE ILLUSTRATED. 

Clairvoyance may be briefly classified as, Far and 
Near, Direct and Indirect, Objective and Sub- 
jective. I propose to give a few well-authenticated 
cases to illustrate these phases in this Chapter. 

Far And Direct Clairvoyance. 

This is possibly the highest and purest combination. 
The sensitive is able to state facts not within the range 
of the knowledge of those present. Thus when Swe- 
denborg discribed to the Queen and her friends, when 
at a distance of several hundred miles from the con- 
flagration, the burning of her palace at Christiania, 
no one present could possibly know of the fire or the 
incidents connected therewith. Hence no thought- 
reading, brain-picking, much less guess-work or co- 
incidence, could account for the exactness of details 
given by the seer. Clairvoyance in this case was not 
only far and direct, but objective. That is, the matter 
recorded was connected with the physical or objec- 
tive plane. 

Clairvoyance An Aid To Science. 

Chicago, 111., as is well known, is one of the most 
go-ahead cities in the world. Like Jonah's gourd it 
appeared to spring up in a night. Its population 
rapidly increased, and water soon became a sine qua 
non, both as regards use and luxury. Science was at 

33 



34 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

fault; for geologists had pronounced that there could 
be no water beneath such strata. Top water was all 
that could be looked for, and presently a water com- 
pany was formed to supply this impure kind of liquid. 

* There happened to live at this time in Chicago a 
person named Abraham James, a simple-minded man, 
of Quaker descent, uneducated, and in fact, quite an 
ignorant person. It was discovered by a Mrs. Caroline 
Jordon that James was a natural clairvoyant, in fact a 
medium, and that he had declared when put into the 
trance condition that both water and petroleum, in 
large quantities, would be found in a certain tract of 
land in the neighboorhood of the city. For a long time 
no attention was paid to his statements. At length 
two gentlemen from Maine, called Whitehead and 
Scott, coming to Chicago on business, and hearing what 
had been said by Abraham James, had him taken to 
the land where he said water could be had in immense 
quantities by boring for. Being entranced, James at 
once pointed out the very spot. He told them that 
he not only saw the water, but could trace its source 
from the Rocky Mountains, 2,000 miles away, to the 
spot on which they stood, and could sketch out on maps 
the strata and caverns through which it ran. Negotia- 
tions were at once entered into for the purchase of the 
land, and the work of boring was commenced. This 
was in Ferbuary, 1864, and the process went on daily 
till November, when, having reached a depth of 711 
feet, water was struck, and flowed up at once at the 
rate of 600,000 gallons every 24 hours. 

"The borings showed the following kinds of strata 
passed through by the drill, and this was spiritually 
seen and described by the Clairvoyant as practical 
proofs to the senses of other people. First the drill 
passed through alluvium soil, 100 feet; limestone, 
saturated with oil, 35 feet, which would burn as well 
as any coal; Joliet marble, 100 feet; conglomerate 



CLAIRVOYANCE ILLUSTRATED 35 

strata of sand and flint, mixed with iron pyrites and 
traces of copper, 125 feet; rock (shale) saturated v/ith 
petroleum, the sediment coming up like putty, thick and 
greasy, 156 feet; galena limestone was next reached at 
a depth of 530 feet; a bed of limestone, containing 
flint and sulphuret of iron was bored through, the 
depth being 639 feet, and being very hard, the work 
went on slowly. At this point there appeared a con- 
stant commotion arising from the escape of gas, the 
water suddenly falling from 30 to 60 feet, and then 
as suddenly rising to the surface, carrying with it 
chippings from the drill, and other matters. The 
work still went on; when at the depth of 711 feet the 
arch on the rock was penetrated, and the water sud- 
denly burst forth from a bore 4J/2 inches at the bot- 
tom, of a temperature of 58"^ F., clear as crystal, pure 
as diamond, and perfectly free from every kind of 
animal and vegetable matter, and which, for drinking 
purposes and health, is much better adapted than any 
water yet known, and will turn out to be the poor 
man's friend for all time to come. 

"Here, then, is a huge fact for the faithless; the 
fact brought to light by dynamite or invisible agency, 
and which no power of negation can gainsay. Natural 
science said. No water could be found ; but psychology 
said — False, for I will point out the spot where it 
will flow in splendid streams as long as the earth spins 
on its axis. Since 1864 the artesian well of Chicago 
has poured forth water at the rate of a million and a 
half gallons daily; and what is economic, to say noth- 
ing of Yankee shrewdness, it is conveyed into ponds 
or reservoirs which in winter freeze, producing 40,- 
000 tons of ice for sale, and which might be quad- 
rupled at any time. "* 

♦"Phrenological Annual/* 1892. Extract from article by 
Dr. Samuel Eadon, M.D., M.A., LL.D. and Ph.D., etc., Aber- 
deen and Edinburgh Universities. , 



36 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

TJiis is a case of far and near, direct and objective 
Clairvoyance, This historical incident proves thei 
value and reality of psychic vision. 

Indirect Clairvoyance is the power of discerning 
what may be more or less in the minds of those pres- 
ent, including absent or forgotten thoughts and inci- 
dents. Thus, when a clairvoyant discribes a place 
with accuracy, recognised by some one present to be 
correct, and also gives details partly known and un- 
known, but afterwards found to be correct, this mix- 
ture of phases may be recognised as indirect. 

SUBJECTIVE CLAIRVOYANCE. 

Subjective Clairvoyance is that phase which enables 
the sensitive to perceive things and ideas on the spirit- 
ual or subjective plane. The late Rev, S taint on Moses, 
well known in literary circles as ''M,A., Oxonf once 
asked the following pertinent questions: 'Ts there 
conceivably a mass of life all round us of which most 
of us have no cognisance? One gifted lady I know 
sees clairvoyantly the spirit-life of all organised things, 
of a tree or plant for example. I have heard her de- 
scribe what her interior faculties perceive. Is it a fact 
that spirit, underlying everything, can be so perceived 
by the awakened faculties ?'' I should say yes. If this 
lady's clairvoyance has been of a high order in other 
respects — why not in this ? This type of psychic vision 
is of the subjective order. 

There are necessarily an infinite variety of phases, 
pure and mixed, which the investigator will meet in 
practice. These phases may be called far, such as 
seeing objects, etc., at a distance — ^prevoyance, pre- 
dicting events; retrovoyance, reading the past; intro- 
voyance, seeing internally, or examining bodies, as in 
disease; external introvoyance, seeing into lockets, 
packets, letters, safes, and discovering hidden, known 



CLAIRVOYANCE ILLUSTRATED 37 

or forgotten, or lost objects. Lastly, there is pseudo- 
clairvoyance. For one case of direct there are hun- 
dreds of well authenticated cases of indirect clairvoy- 
ance, and again for one of the latter there are thou- 
sands of pseudo-clairvoyance, which are the outcome 
of states similar to hypnosis, and are nothing more 
than an incongruous medley of suggested ideas and 
fancies. Thus a strong and positive willed person 
can impinge his ideas through the thought-atmosphere 
of the sensitive and distort or deflect the psychic vision, 
and render abortive any attempts to get beyond the 
circle of the dominating influence. Again, the sensi- 
tive may enter a realm of fancy — a veritable dream- 
land of coherent and incoherent ideation, either the 
product of the sensitive's own condition, or of sug- 
gestion — accidental, spontaneous, and determined — in 
the sensitive's surroundings. Of course any classifi- 
cation of the numerous phases of Clairvoyance must 
be purely arbitrary. 

Direct And Objective Clairvoyance — Lost Goods 

Restored. 

This instance of far vision is taken from ''A Tan^ 
gled Yarn/' page 173, ''Leaves from Captain James 
Payn's Log/' which was published recently by C. H. 
Kelly. As I knew Captain Hudson, of Swansea, per- 
sonally, and heard from his own lips the following 
incident, I have much pleasure in introducing it here 
as a further illustration of the Cui bono of Clair- 
voyance: — 

"The Theodore got into Liverpool the same day as 
the Bland. She was a larger ship than ours but had 
a similar cargo. The day that I went to the owners 
to report 'all right,' I met with Captain Morton in a 
terrible stew because he was thirty bales of cotton 
short, a loss equal to the whole of his own wages and 



38 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

the mate's into the bargain. He was so fretted over 
it that his wife in desperation recommended him to 
get the advice of a Captain Hudson, who had a young 
female friend clever as a Clairvoyant, We were both 
sceptical in the matter of clairvoyance. At first Mor- 
ton didn't wish to meddle, he said, with 'a parcel of 
modern witchcraft,' and that sort of thing; but he 
at last yielded to his wife's urgency and consented 
to go. There was first of all a half-crown fee to 
Captain Hudson, and then the way was clear for an 
interview with the young clairvoyant. I was present 
to 'see fair.' When the girl had been put into the 
clairvoyant state Morton was instructed to take her 
right hand in his right hand and ask her any questions 
he wished. The replies were in substance as follows : — 
She went back mentally to the port whence the Theo- 
dore had sailed, retracing with her hand as she in 
zvords also described the course of the ship from Liver- 
pool across the Atlantic, through the West Indian 
group, etc., back to New Orleans. At length she said, 
'Yes, this is the place where the cotton is lost; it's 
put on board a big black ship with a red mark round 
it' Then she began to trace with her hand and de- 
scribe the homeward course of the vessel, but after 
re-crossing the Atlantic, instead of coming up the Irish 
Channel for Liverpool, she turned along the English 
Channel as though bound for the coast of France; and 
then stretching out her hand she exclaimed, 'Oh, here's 
the cotton; but what funny people they are; they 
don't talk English.^ Captain Morton said at once, 'I 
see; it's the Brunswick, Captain Thomas,' an Amer- 
ican ship that lay alongside of him at New Orleans 
and was taking in her cargo of cotton while the Theo- 
dore was loading, and was bound for Havre de Grace. 
Captain Morton, satisfied with his Clairvoyant's in- 
formation, went home and wrote immediately to Cap- 
tain Thomas, inquiring for his lost cargo. In due 



CLAIRVOYANCE ILLUSTRATED 39 

course he got an answer that the cotton was certainly 
there, that it had been taken off the wharf in mistake, 
and that it was about to be sold for whomsoever it 
might concern; but that if he (Captain Morton) 
would remit a certain amount to cover freight and 
expenses, the bales should be forwarded to him at 
once. He did so, and in due time received the cotton, 
subject only to the expenses of transit from Havre to 
Liverpool." Such are the facts; I do not offer any 
explanation, for none are needed. 

Clairvoyance An Aid To The Physician. 

I am indebted to Dr. George Wyld for this case, 
which also exhibits the value of Clairvoyance, Dr. 
Wyld had the good fortune to make the acquaintance 
of a Mrs. D , a lady in private life who was en- 
dowed with the gift of natural Clairvoyance. Dr. 
Wyld told his lady of "a friend who had for years 
suffered intense agony for hours every night in his 
back and chest, and that latterly he had been obliged 
to sit up all night in a chair, and his legs began to 
swell." 

"This gentleman had regularly for three years been 
under many of the leading physicians of London. 
Some said that there must be some obscure heart affec- 
tion, others said it was neuralgia, one said it was gout, 
and the last consulted said it was malignant caries of 
the spine." 

Dr. Wyld's friend called upon him by appointment, 

and met Mrs. D . This lady merely looked at him. 

When he had retired from the room Mrs. D made 

the following statement of his case to the doctor: — 
'T have seen what the disease is; I saw it as distinctly 
as if the body were transparent. There is a tumour 
behind the heart, about the size of a walnut; it is of 
a dirty colour; and it jumps and looks as if it would 



40 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

burst. Nothing can do him any good but entire rest/' 

"I at once saw/' says Dr. Wyld, ''what she meant, 
and sat down to write to my friend's medical attend- 
ant as follows : — 

"I believe I have discovered the nature of Mr. 's 

disease. He has an aneurism on the descending aorta, 
about the size of a walnut. It is this which causes the 
slight displacement which has been observed in the 
heart, and the pressure of the tumour against the inter- 
costal nerves is the cause of the agony in the back, and 
the peripheral pains in the front of the chest. You 

are going to-morrow to see Sir in consulation; 

show him this diagnosis, and let me know what he 
says." 

"Next, the patient had the consultation, and Mrs. 

D 's diagnosis was confirmed; and the doctors 

agreed with Mrs. D the only thing to be done 

was to take entire rest. The treatment was duly fol- 
lowed up, with successful results." Dr. Wyld thought- 
fully adds — "It is true that the diagnosis cannot be 
absolutely confirmed during life, but as the profession 
imanimously pronounce the disease to be aneurism, 
the diagnosis may be accepted as correct. This diag- 
nosis has probably saved the gentleman's life, as before 
Mrs. D— — saw him he was allowed to shoot over 
Scotch moors, and to ride, drive, and play billiards." 

The use of Clairvoyance in the diagnosis of disease 
is by no means as rare as the majority of physicians 
and the general public would naturally assume. I have 
had many opportunities of witnessing the accuracy of 
diagnosis and the excellence of the methods of treat- 
ment advised by Clairvoyants, In my own personal 
experience I have had much evidence of correctness 
of Clairvoyance in diagnosis, and subsequent success 
in treatment. It is a phase most desirable to cultivate 
if possible, and all allied conditions connected there- 
with. 



CLAIRVOYANCE ILLUSTRATED 41 



TRAVELLING CLAIRVOYANCE. 

As a public entertainer at one time, giving demon- 
strations of mesmeric phenomena, I have had natu- 
rally many opportunities of seeing different types of 
Clairvoyance. During a course of entertainments 
given by me in Rothesay, 1881, I was able to introduce 
Clairvoyance to public notice by the most difficult 
method, that of public experiments. 

M. C, the Clairvoyante, was a native of Newcastle- 
on-Tyne. All her clairvoyant experiments were satis- 
factory. Her husband was also a Clairvoyant, but 
not so striking for public exhibition. M. C. seemed 
to possess all phases. One or two experiments out of 
many will be interesting not only as illustrative of 
Clairvoyance, but because what I relate can be easily 
ratified. 

M. C. arrived in Rothesay for the first time about 
four hours previously to taking her seat upon the 
platform, in the New Public Halls. It was neither 
possible nor probable she could have obtained the in- 
formation she possessed by other than psychic means. 
The clairvoyant was mesmerised and blindfolded be- 
fore the audience. After some experiments in objec- 
tive clairvoyance were given, such as describing a 
watch, telling the time, and the number, by having 
the watch held silently over her forehead, she gave 
several experiments in travelling clairvoyance. Many 
visitors in the hall — for Rothesay is a well known and 
fashionable seaside resort — sent up requests to the 
platform, and desired the Clairvoyante should visit 
their homes in Kent, Cornwall, Island of Jersey, in 
the Isle of Man, Glasgow, and other places. Her visits 
and descriptions were in all instances extremely satis- 
factory. How far thought-transference and objective 
clairvoyance commingled and entered into her descrip- 



42 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

tions it would be difficult to say, but the results wera 
simply marvellous. 

Test case, by the late Dr. Maddever, M.D., M.R. 
C.S., and Dr. John Maddever, his son. These medical 
gentlemen resided in Rothesay, and were present in 
the hall. Dr. Maddever desired me to send the clair- 
voyante into a certain room in his house and that she 
should describe it. 

All the directions the Clairvoyante obtained were, 
''to go out of the hall, down the front steps; when 
out turn to the right and proceed onward till she came 
to an iron-railed gate, on which was a small brass 
plate, bearing the name of 'Dr. Maddever,' she was to 
open the gate, go up to the hall-door, enter, pass the 
first door to the left, and turn round a passage to the 
left and enter the first door to which she came, and 
describe what she saw." 

Sitting still upon the platform in silence for a min- 
ute or two, she suddenly exclaimed: — '7 am at the 
gate — at the door — now in the hall — I have found the 
room, and I am now inside, and stand with my back 
to the door!' She then proceeded to describe the 
room, the book-cases which surrounded it, their pecu- 
liar structure; the mantel-piece, the form of the clock, 
the time, and the appearance of the ornaments. The 
table in the centre of the room, its form, the color 
and style of the cloth upon it, books, albums, and 
papers thereon, the flower vase support in the window, 
and a number of other particulars. 

At the conclusion Dr. Maddever arose in the audi- 
ence and said: — Ladies and gentlemen, Dr, de Lau- 
rence is a stranger to me, I only know of him by 
report. The young lady on the platform I do not 
know. I have not seen either till this evening, and they 
have never been in my house. The experiment we 
have had is most remarkable, and should be of deep 
and profound interest to all. The young lady has de- 



CLAIRVOYANCE ILLUSTRATED 43 

scribed the room, as far as I can remember , most cor- 
rectly — in fact very much better than I could have done 
myself f' This statement was received with applause. 

After one or two instances of travelling Clairvoy- 
ance, 2l young gentleman rose in the body of the hall 
and desired I should send the sensitive to a house or 
villa not far from the juncture of Marine Place and 
Ardbeg Road. 

The directions given to the Clairvoyante were briefly 
to the effect, she was to leave the place, on reaching 
the front street she was to turn to her left and keep 
on past the Post Office, Esplanade, past the Skeoch 
Woods, etc., till she came to the house. She nodded 
her head in compliance, and presently announced she 
**'had found the house.'' Then she shivered and ap- 
peared to draw back, and said ''I won't go in/' 

Some persons in the audience laughed, and one (I 
think it was the young gentleman who asked that she 
might be sent) said: ''The whole thing is a swindle." 
Now, considering there was not a single flaw in the 
experiments that night, surprise after surprise being 
given, and the audience had risen in enthusiasm, this 
opinion was not favorably received. 

I asked the gentleman "to have patience." I had no 
doubt but we would know soon enough the reasons. 
^Whatever they were I would try and ascertain them." 

With much hesitancy she declared that 'Uhe house 
was not one any respectable female would enter, and 
she would not/' When I repeated this statement to 
the audience, there was what the newspapers call 
"sensation." The sensation was intensified when one 
of the Rothesay Magistrates, Bailie Molloy, the then 
senior Bailie of the Royal Burgh, declared ''the young 
woman was right, perfectly right, this was a house 
which had been inadvertently let to persons of ill-fame, 
and he, for one, had recently had the facts of the case 
placed before him, and he was most anxious that these 



44 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

people should he put out, and they would be, as soon 
as the proper steps could be taken/' 

The young gentleman retired somewhat discomfited, 
and the excitement produced by these and other ex- 
periments brought crowded houses during my profes- 
sional stay in England. 

When my ''mesmeric exposition'' was concluded, the 
two medical gentlemen referred to, were good enough 
to introduce themselves, and invited me to call next day 
to see the room. I accepted the invitation during the 
following day and saw how truly correct and vivid her 
description had been. In the first experiment the sensi- 
tive described the state of the doctor's library, point- 
ing out what had not been recollected by either of the 
medical men, and I believe the other case comes under 
the heading of direct and objective clairvoyance. Dr. 
Maddever's house was about a quarter of a mile, and 
the other house about a mile and a half from the hall. 

The persistent and reliable Clairvoyance evinced by 
this sensitive was induced. She was a mesmeric sub- 
ject, and when such subjects are properly treated they 
make the very best Clairvoyants. 

Psychic Vision Possessed By The Blind. 

Mrs. Croad resided at Redland, Bristol. My atten- 
tion was called to her case some years ago by Dr. J. G. 
Davey, of Bristol. Unfortunately circumstances at 
the time prevented a personal visit and report. Her 
psychic gifts and wonderful supersensitivity have been 
amply testified to, by most reliable witnesses, such as 
Dr. Davey, Hy. G. Atkinson, F.G.S., and others. 

Clairvoyance in Mrs. Croad's case was and is (for 
I believe the lady is still living) a singular admixture 
of subtle sense transference so well known to mes- 
merists of the old school, and spontaneous psychic 
vision. Thought-transference and indirect Clairvoy- 



CLAIRVOYANCE ILLUSTRATED 45 

ance, more or less induced, by intence voluntary con- 
centration. , 
Mrs. Croad is deaf, dumb, and paralysed, and stone ' 
blind. She can see and hear, read with powers "de- 
nied to ordinary mortals,'' and discern pictures and 
writings in the dark. She is aware of her daughter's 
thoughts when the latter touches her, and becomes at 
once acquainted with what her daughter wishes to 
communicate. She possesses supersensitivity of touch, 
and discerns colour by their degrees of heat, rough- 
ness or smoothness. She can also identify photo- 
graphs and pictures in the same way. From time to 
time she has exhibited the highest phases of Clair- 
voyance, Reports have been made in this case by med- 
ical experts in the Journal of Psychological Medicine, 
and other magazines and journals several years ago. 
The most recent was contributed by the Rev. Taliesin 
Dans, The Cottage, Claptons, to The Review of Re- 
views in January, 1891. 

The Spiritualistic And Practical Character Of 

Clairvoyance 

might be further illustrated by the well-known case of 
Miss Eliza Hamilton, who became paralysed in her 
limbs and right arm, through severe injury to the 
spine. She had been in hospital for four months, on 
her return home frequently passed into the trance 
state, and on awakening described various people and 
places she had visited, and objects seen. These de- 
scriptions have been invariably verified subsequently. 
"She also at times,'' says her physician, "speaks of 
having been in the company of persons with whom 
she was acquainted in this world, but who have passed 
away ; and she tells her friends that they have become 
more beautiful, and have cut off their infirmities with 
which they were afflicted while here. She often de- 



46 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

scribes events which are about to happen, and these 
are always fulfilled exactly as she predicts. 

"Her father/' says Mr. Hudson Tuttle, *'read in 
her presence a letter he had received from a friend 
in Leeds, speaking of the loss of his daughter, about 
whose fate he was very unhappy, as she had disap- 
peared nearly a month before, and left no trace. Eliza 
went into the trance state, and cried out, 'Rejoice! 
I have found the lost girl ! She is happy in the angel 
world.' She said the girl had fallen into the dark 
water where dyers washed their cloths; that her 
friends could not have found her had they sought her 
there, but now the body had floated a few miles, and 
would be found in the River Aire. The body was 
found as described. 

"Now, knowing that her eyes were closed, that she 
could not hear, that her bodily senses were in profound 
lethargy, how are we to account for the intensity and 
keenness of sight? Her mental powers were exceed- 
ingly exalted, and scarcely a question could be asked 
her but she correctly answered. 

"In this case the independence of the mind of the 
physical body is shown in every instance of Clair- 
voyance, is proven beyond cavil or doubt, (if it is 
demonstrated that the mind sees without the aid of 
eyes, hears when the ears are deaf, feels when the 
nerves of sensation are at rest, it follows that it is 
independent of these outward avenues, and has other 
channels of communication with the external world 
essentially its own." 

CLAIRVOYANCE FROM DISEASE 

Miss Mollie Fancher, of Brooklyn Heights, fell off 
a tramway car when eighteen years of age, experienced 
very severe injuries to head and spine, her body being 
dragged a distance, through her dress catching on 



CLAIRVOYANCE ILLUSTRATED 47 

the step of the car. She became paralysed, lost all 
her senses, except touch. She gradually recovered 
hearing, taste, and ability to talk in time. She was 
also blind for nine years. Drs. Speir and Ormiston 
were her physicians, men of skill and marked probity. 
These, with a veritable host of medical men — ^ministers 
of the Gospel, educationists, and specialists — -have 
borne testimony to her remarkable endowments, from 
which we take two extracts. Mr. Charles Ewart, Prin- 
cipal of the Brooklyn Heights Seminary, where she 
was under special care, writes : — 

"For many days together she has been to all appear- 
ances dead. The slightest pulse could not be detected ; 
there was no evidence of respiration. Her limbs were 
as cold as ice, and had there not been some warmth 
about her heart, she would have been buried. When 
I first saw her she had but one sense — that of touch. 
By running her fingers over the printed page, she could 
read with equal facility in light or darkness. The 

most delicate work is done by her in the night 

Her power of clairvoyance, or second sight, Is mar- 
vellously developed. Distance imposes no barriers, 
without the slightest error she dictates the contents 
of sealed letters which have never been in her hands. 
She discriminates in darkness the most delicate shades 
of colour. She writes with extraordinary rapidity.'' 

Mr, Henry M. Parkhursf, the astronomer (residing 
at J/j Gates Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y.), writes: — 

"From the waste-basket of a New York gentleman 
acquaintance he fished an unimportant business letter, 
without reading it, tore it into ribbons, and tore the 
ribbons into squares. He shook the pieces well to- 
gether, put them into an envelope, and sealed it. This 
he subsequently handed to Miss Fancher. The blind 
girl took the envelope in her hand, and passed her hand 
over it several times, called for paper and pencil, and 



48 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

wrote it verbatim The seal of the letter had not been 
broken. Mr. Parkhurst himself opened it, pasted the 
contents together, and compared the two. Miss Fan- 
cher's was a literal copy of the original/' 

Mesmeric Clairvoyance And Spiritualism. 

"A few evenings ago I called upon Mr. and Mrs. 
Loomis, 2 Vernon Place, Bloomsbury, and after we 
had chatted for a short time in the drawing-room with 
the door closed and nobody else present, I asked if 
they would try a mesmeric experiment for me. They 
willingly agreed, and Mr. Loomis, by passes, threw his 
wife into a mesmeric state, as he often does, and an 
intelligence, which claimed to be the spirit of her 
mother, spoke through her lips. Until this moment I 
had said nothing to any living soul about the nature 
of my contemplated experiment, but I then asked the 
unseen intelligence if it could then and there go to the 
house of Mrs. Macdougall Gregory, 21 Green Street, 
Grosvenor Square, London, and move a heavy physical 
object in her presence. The reply was, I do not know, 
I will try. About three minutes afterwards, at 8.40 
p.m., the intelligence said that Mrs. Gregory was in her 
drawing-room with a friend, and added, T have made 
Mrs. Gregory feel a prickly sensation in her arm from 
the elbow down to the hand, as if some person had 
squeezed the arm, and she has spoken about it to her 
friend.' 

"I took a note in writing of this statement at the 
time it was made. A few minutes later I left Mr. and 
Mrs. Loomis, and without telling them my intention 
to do so, went straight to the house of Mrs. Gregory 
about a mile and a half off. I had selected Mrs. Greg- 
ory for this experiment because she is not afraid to 
publish her name in connection with psychic truths, 
and her word carries weight, especially in Scotland, 






CLAIRVOYANCE ILLUSTRATED 49 

where she and her family are well-known. She is the 
widow of Professor Gregory, of Edinburgh Univer- 
sity, and is a lineal descendant of the Lord of the Isles. 
I then for the first time told Mrs. Gregory of the ex- 
periment. She replied that between half-past eight 
and nine o'clock that evening she was playing the 
piano, and suddenly turned round to her friend, Miss 
Yauewicz, of Upper Norwood, saying, *I don't know 
what is the matter with me, I feel quite stupid, and 
have such a pain in my right arm that I cannot go on 
playing.' Miss Yauewicz, who was no believer in 
spiritualism or any of the marvels of psychology, felt 
a lively interest when she was informed of the experi- 
ment. She told me that she clearly remembered Mrs. 
Gregory's statement that she could not go on playing 
because of the pain in her right arm." * 

Mrs. Loomis was a remarkable Clairvoyante, whom 
I accidentally became acquainted with in Liverpool 
many years ago, shortly after her arrival from Amer- 
ica. I introduced the lady and her husband, Mr. Daniel 
Loomis, to Mr. Harris, then editor of The Spiritualist, 
The Guion steamer, Idaho, in which they came from 
New York, was wrecked off the Irish Coast, and all 
they possessed in this world was lost with the vessel. 
Mrs. Loomis predicted the disaster, where it was 
likely to take place; that all hands would be saved, 
but all they had lost. Upon the arrival of the officers 
of the vessel in Liverpool, they presented Mrs. Loomis, 
at the Bee Hotel, John Street, Liverpool, with a basket 
of flowers, purse, and testimonial, in recognition of 
her gift, and heroic conduct during and after the dis- 
aster. I may add I knew Mr. Harrison as a most 
careful investigator and a man of scientific tastes and 
ability. 

I select the following case of a mesmeric sensitive 

* "Spirits Before Our Eyes," page 215. By W. H. Harri- 
son, 1879. 



50 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

controlled by a disembodied spirit, from the writings 
of Mr. Epes Sargent, author of ''Planchette on the 
Despair of Science/' etc. As appropriately illustrative 
of this form of Clairvoyance: — 

"One of the daughters of my valued correspondent, 
the late William Howett, was a mesmeric sensitive. 
Howett told Professor W. D. Gunning, whose words 
(slightly abridged) I use here, that, on one occasion 
his daughter, being entranced, wrote a communication 
signed with the name of her brother, supposed to be 
in Australia. The import was, that he had been 
drowned a few days before in a lake. Dates and de- 
tails were given. The parents could only wait, as 
there was no trans-oceanic telegraph. Months passed, 
and at last a letter came from a nephew in Melbourne, 
bearing the tidings that their son had been drowned 
on such a day, in such a lake, under such and such 
circumstances. Date, place, and all the essential de- 
tails were the same as those given months before 
through the daughter. Mr. Howett believed that the 
freed spirit of his son influenced the sister to write; 
and I know of no explanation more rational than this," 

Clairvoyance Due To Spiritual Control. 

Such cases as the above are the most difficult of all 
to prove. What I contend for is, if it is demonstrated 
we can control a fellow-being, throw him or her into 
a trance state — in which the phenomena of the psychic 
state are evolved — and seeing such state is induced 
largely by the control of spirit over spirit in the body, 
why may not a disembodied spirit control, direct, or 
influence a suitable sensitive or medium in the body? 
If not, why not? There is abundant evidence of such 
controls. 

Seeing objects concealed in boxes and letters, or 
reading books and mottoes, etc., appears to some Clair- 



CLAIRVOYANCE ILLUSTRATED 51 

voyants to be more difficult than diagnosing disease, 
or seeing objects at a distance. The why and where- 
fore seems at first difficult to explain. 

The deliberate concealment of objects for the pur- 
pose of testing Clairvoyance is often the result of a 
spirit of virulent suspicion, disbelief, and, what is 
worse, an earnest desire for failure, so that the parties 
may rejoice on the discomfiture of the Clairvoyants. 
With such people failure is a source of pleasure. 
Nevertheless, seeming impossibilities have been tri- 
umphed over. Long lost wills have been found, and 
places of the accidental or intentional hiding discov- 
ered. In more than one case deliberate fraud has been 
exposed, and the guilty parties brought to acknowledge 
the truth of the sensitive's revelations. 

The Fugitive Nature Of Clairvoyance. 

"The chief feature," said Alexis Didier, "of the 
somnambulistic lucidity is it variability. While the 
conjurer or juggler, at all moments in the day and be- 
fore all spectators, will invariably succeed, the som- 
nambulist, endowed with the marvellous power of 
clairvoyance, will not be lucid with all interviewers 
and at all moments of the day; for the faculty of 
lucidity being a crisis painful and abnormal, there may 
be atmospheric influences or invincible antipathies at 
work opposing its production, and which seem to para- 
lyse all supersensual manifestation. Intuition, clair- 
voyance, lucidity, are faculties which the somnambu- 
list gets from the nature of his temperament, and which 
are rarely developed in force." Further, he adds, "the 
somnambultisic lucidity varies in a way to make one 
despair; success is continually followed by failure; 
in a word, error succeeds a truth ; but when one ana- 
lyses the causes of this no right-minded person will 
bring up the charge of Charlatanism, since the faculty 



52 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

is subject to influences independent of the will and the 
consciousness of the clairvoyant." 

Alexis Didier, like his brother Adolphe, was a natu- 
ral Clairvoyant, and excelled in direct and objective 
clairvoyance, phases of the most striking and convinc- 
ing character. 

Clairvoyance can be cultivated by the aid of Hyp- 
potnism and by the introspection process. By the first, 
the sensitive can be materially assisted by the expe- 
rience and help of the operator. By the second, natural 
Clairvoyance can be induced. Either processes are 
more or less suitable to subdue the activity of the 
senses, and give greater range to the psychic powers. 
General instructions for using the ''Magic Mirror^' 
are given in ''A Message For All Mystics/' which can 
be obtained free from Messrs. de Laurence, Scott & Co. 
The operator then knows with whom he has to do, 
their special temperament and character, what are the 
best processes to adopt to cultivate their gift, and how 
far such sensitive students are themselves likely to be 
suitable for Clairvoyant experiments. Many have 
found the ''Magic Mirror'' or "The Crystal Gazing" 
useful in inducing favorable conditions for the de- 
velopment of Clairvoyance, and recommend its use. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PSYCHOMETRY. 

What is psychometry? Psychometry is a phase of 
Clairvoyance — the knowledge the psychic obtains by a 
clue, such as a lock of the hair of some absent person, 
or some portion of a distant object. Mr. Stead calls 
it (Review of Reviews, p. 221, September, 1892) '*the 
strange new science of Psychometry/' In this he par- 
donably errs. Psychometry may be strange, but it is 
not new. We may not recognise the name as old, but 
the class of phenomena it specialises is as old as Clair- 
voyance and Mind-Reading. 

The word Psychometry was coined in 1842, to ex- 
press the character of a new science and art, and is 
the most pregnant and important word that has been 
added to the English language. Coined from the 
Greek (psyche, soul; and metron, measure), it liter- 
ally signifies soul-measuring f' . . . The Psychometer 
measures the soul. 

In the case of Psychometry, the measuring assumes 
a new character, as the object measured and the meas- 
uring instrument are the same psychic elements, as 
measuring power is not limited to the psychic, as it 
was developed in the first experiments, but has ap- 
peared by successive investigations to manifest a wider 
and wider area of power, until it became apparent 
that this psychic capacity was really the measure of 
all things in the universe. Hence, psychometry signi- 
fies not merely the measuring of souls and soul capac- 
ities, or qualities by our own psychic capacities, but 
the measurement and judgment of all things conceiv- 
able by the human mind; and psychometry means 

53 



54 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

practically measuring by the soul, or grasping and 
estimating all things which are within the range of 
human intelligence. Psychometry, therefore, is not 
merely an instrumentality for measuring soul powers, 
but a comprehensive agency like mathematics for the 
solution of many departments of science. 

Prophecy is the noblest aspect of Psychometry, and 
there is no reason why it should not become the guid- 
ing power to each individual life, and the guiding 
power of the destiny of nations. 

In physiology, pathology, and hygiene, Psychometry 
is as wise and parental as in matters of character and 
ethics. A competent Psychometer appreciates the vital 
forces, the temperament, the peculiarities, and every 
departure from the normal state, realising the diseased 
condition with an accuracy in which external diagnosis 
often fails. In fact, the natural Psychometer is born 
with a genius for the healing art, and if the practice 
of medicine were limited to those who possess this 
power in an eminent degree, its progress would be 
rapid, and its disgraceful failures in diagnosis and 
blunders in treatment and prognosis would be less fre- 
quently heard of. Many happy tests in diagnosis and 
in the successful treatment of disease — out of the ordi- 
nary routine — are due, in my opinion, not so much to 
elaborate medical training as to the fact of the prac- 
titioner — perhaps unconscious to himself — being pos- 
sessed of more or less of the psychometric faculty. 

Dr. Buchanan,'*' in his ''Original Sk etches f' gives us 

*Dr. Joseph Rhodes Buchanan has been Dean and Professor 
in several American universities. As far back as 1830 he was 
Professor of Medicine in Transylvania University. In the year 
1841 he made several important discoveries in cerebral psy- 
chology, which he communicated to the American and to the 
Edinburgh Phrenological Journals. These discoveries are elabo- 
rated in his unique system of Anthropology, and are published 
in his works — ''Therapeutic Sarcognomy'/ ''Psychometry'/ "The 
Dawn of a New Civilisation" "System of Anthropology," and 
"The New Education" 



PSYCHOMETRY 55 

the history and some details of his discovery, based 
upon certain investigations of the nervous system. Al- 
ready he was well versed in the phenomena of hypno- 
tism, which is at this late day becoming a fashionable 
study and recreation of medical men. He had demon- 
strated the responsive action of cerebral organs to 
mesmeric touch and influence, and he was already 
acquainted with the curious psychological phenomena 
of sense and thought transference, of double conscious- 
ness, and all the nervous and pathological phases pecu- 
liar to natural and artificial somnambulism. His in- 
vestigation for years of the nervous system had clearly 
shown him that its capacities were far more extensive, 
varied, and interesting than physiologists and philoso- 
phers either knew or were prepared to admit. He 
found in the nervous system a vast aggregate of pow- 
ers which constitute the vitality of man, existing in 
intimate connection with the vast and wonderful 
powers of his mind. Was it possible or rational to 
suppose that this nerve-matter, so intimately co-related 
with mind, and upon which the mind depends for the 
manifestation of its powers, could be entirely limited 
to the narrow materialistic sphere assigned by physiol- 
ogists ? He thought not. 

In a conversation with Bishop Polk (who after- 
wards became the celebrated General Polk of Con- 
federate fame). Dr. Buchanan ascertained that Bishop 
Polk's nervous sensibility was so acute that, if by acci- 
dent he touched a piece of brass in the night, when 
he could not see what he had touched, he immediatel)^ 
felt the influence through his system, and recognised 
an offensive metallic taste. 

The discovery of such sensitiveness in one of the 
most vigorous men, in mind and body, of his day, led 
Dr. Buchanan to believe that it might be found in 
many others. It is needless to say his conjecture was 
correct. Accordingly, in the numerous neurological 



S6 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

experiments which he afterwards commenced, he was 
accustomed to place metals of different kinds in the 
hands of persons of acute sensibility, for the purpose 
of ascertaining whether they could feel any peculiar 
influence, recognise any peculiar taste, or appreciate 
the difference of metals, by any impression upon their 
own sensitive nerves. It soon appeared that the power 
was quite common, and there were a large number of 
persons who could determine by touching a piece of 
metal, or by holding it in their hands, what the metal 
was, as they recognised a peculiar influence proceeding 
from it, which in a few moments gave them a distinct 
taste in the mouth. But this sensitiveness was not 
confined to metallic substances. Every substance pos- 
sessing a decided taste — sugar, salt, nutmeg, pepper, 
acid, etc. — ^appeared to be capable of transferring its 
influence. The influence appeared to affect the hand, 
and then travel upwards. He afterwards demon- 
strated when a galvanic or electric current passed 
through a medicinal substance, the influence of the 
substance was transmitted with the current, detected 
and described by the person operated upon. Medicinal 
substances, enclosed in paper, were readily recognised 
and described by their effects. In due time, stranger 
still, a geological specimen, an article worn, a letter 
written upon, a photograph which had been handled, 
a coin, etc., transmitted their influence, and the psy- 
chometrist was enabled to read off the history concern- 
ing the particular object. 

Nearly fifty years have elapsed since the discovery 
of this '^strange new science" and art. *'To-day it is 
widely known, has its respected and competent prac- 
titioners, who are able to describe the mental and vital 
peculiarities of those who visit or write them, and who 
create astonishment and delight by the fidelity and 
fulness of the descriptions which they send to persons 
unknown, and at vast distances. They give minute 



PSYCHOMETRY 57 

analysis of character and revelations of particular* 
known only to the one described, pointing out with 
parental delicacy and tenderness the defects which need 
correction, or in the perverse and depraved they ex- 
plain what egotism would deny, but what society, 
family, and friends recognise to be too true/' 

Psychometric Reflections. 

71 shadow never falls upon a wall without leaving 
thereupon a permanent trace — a trace made visible by 
resorting to proper processes. Upon the walls of pri- 
vate apartments, where we think the eye of intrusion 
is altogether shut out, and our retirement can never 
be profaned, there exists the vestiges of our acts, sil- 
houettes of whatever we have done. It is a crushing 
thought to whoever has committed secret crime, that 
the picture of his deed, and the very echo of his words, 
may be seen and heard countless years after he has 
gone the way of all flesh, and left a reputation for 
"respectability'' to his children. 

Detectives have received impressions from a scene 
of crime, a clue to the unravelment of the mystery 
and the detection of the criminal. Yet they could not 
trace the impressions to anything they saw or heard 
during their preliminary investigations. No good de- 
tective will throw aside such impressions. Indeed, 
those most successful are those who, while paying 
attention to all outward and so-called tangible clues, 
do not neglect for one moment the impressions re- 
ceived, and the thoughts felt, when gathering infor- 
mation likely to lead to the detection of the law- 
breakers. There are provinces in the mind that physi^ 
cians have not entered info. 

Thoughts are things — living, real and tangible, 
images, visions, deep and pungent sensations — which 
exist in the Astral Light after their creation distinct 



S8 THOUGHT-TRAN SFERENCE 

and apart from ourselves — ''Footprints on the sands 
of time/' in more senses than one. We all leave our 
mark in a thousand subtle ways. No material micro- 
scope or telescope can detect, nevertheless our mark 
can be discovered by the powers of the human soul. 
From our cradle to the grave — does it stop there? — 
every thought, emotion, movement, and action have 
left their subtle traces, so that our whole life can be 
traced out by the psychometric expert. We verily give 
hostages to fortune all through life. 



Psychometric Sensitives. 

Professor Denton was very fortunate in having in 
his wife, children, and in his sister, Mrs. Cridge, gifted 
Psychometers. His sister possessed this psychic, intui- 
tive faculty in a high degree. Dr. Buchanan was 
equally fortunate; not only was his wife a first-class 
sensitive, but he discovered the faculty in several uni- 
versity professors, and in students innumerable. Den- 
ton in his travels over America, Europe, and Australia 
found several hundred good sensitives, some of whom 
have since made a reputation both in Europe and 
America for their powers. 

One important fact we learn from these pioneers in 
Psychometric research is "that not one of these per- 
sons knew they were endowed with the psychometric 
gift prior to taking part in classes or experiments." 

The possession of the faculty is not confined to any 
age, or to the gentle sex; and, on an average, one 
female in four and one man in ten are Psychometric 
Sensitives. The possibility is all healthy, sensitive, 
refined, intuitive, and impressionable persons possess 
the soul-measuring faculty, and this faculty, like all 
other innate human powers, can be cultivated and 
brought to a high stage of perfection. 



PSYCHOMETRY 59 

The Psychometer, unlike the induced Clairvoyant 
or Entranced Medium, is in general, or outwardly at 
least, a mere spectator, as one who beholds a drama 
or witnesses a panorama, and tells in his own way to 
someone else what he sees and what he thinks about it. 
The sensitive can dwell on what is seen, examine it 
closely, and record individual opinions of the impres- 
sions of the persons, incidents, and scenes of the long 
hidden thus brought to light. The sensitive has merely 
to hold the object in hand or hold it to the forehead 
(temple), when he or she is enabled to come in con- 
tact with the soul of the person or thing with which 
the object has been in relation. There is no loss of 
external consciousness, no ''up rush'' of the subliminal, 
obliterating and overlapping that of common life. The 
sensitive appears to be in a perfectly normal condition 
during the whole time of examination, can lay the 
article down, noticing what takes place, and entering 
into conversation with those in the room, or drawing 
subjects, seen or not, as they think best. 



What Psychometry Can Do. 

I once gave a Psychometer a specimen from the 
carboniferous formation; closing her eyes, she de- 
scribed those swamps and trees, with their tufted heads 
and scaly trunks, with the great frog-like animals that 
existed in that age. To my inexpressible delight the 
key to the ages was in my hands. I concluded that 
nature had been photographing from the very first. 
The black islands that floated upon the fiery sea, the 
gelatinous dots, the first life on our planet, up through 
everything that flew or swam, had been photographed 
by Nature, and ten thousand experiments had con- 
firmed the theory. I got a specimen of the lava that 
flowed from Kilava, in Hawaii, in 1848. The Psy- 



6o THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

chometer by its means described the boiling ocean, the 
cataract of molten lava that almost equalled Niagara 
in size. A small fragment of meteorite that fell in 
Painesville, O., was given to a sensitive who did not 
then believe in psychometry. This is what she said: 
*T seem to be travelling away, away, through nothing, 
right forward. I see what look like stars and mist. 
I seem to be taken right up ; the other specimens took 
me down." Another sensitive, independently, gave a 
similar description, but saw it revolving, and its tail 
of sparks. I took steps to prove that this was not 
mind reading by wrapping the specimens in paper, 
shaking them up in a hat, and allowing the sensitive 
to pick out one and describe it, without anyone know- 
ing which it was. Among them were a fragment of 
brick from ancient Rome, antimony from Borneo, sil- 
ver from Mexico, basalt from FingaVs Cave. Each 
place was described correctly by the sensitive in the 
most minute detail. A fragment from the Mount of 
Olives brought a description of Jerusalem; and one 
from the Great Pyramid enabled a young man of Mel- 
bourne to name and describe it. A number of experi- 
ments from a fragment of Kent's Cave, fragments 
from Pompeii and other places brought minute de- 
scriptions from the sensitive. 

Mr. Stead bears his testimony to Psychometry, He 
gave a shilling to two ladies, at different periods, and 
unknown to each other. In fact, they were perfect 
strangers. This shilling, in my mind, had a special 
story connected with it. The first lady had lived in 
Wimbledon, and had the profession of being a Clair- 
voyants To use Mr. Stead's own words, he stated : — 
"I took from my purse a shilling which I most prized 
of all the pieces of money in my possession. I said 
nothing to her beyond that I had carried it in my 
pocket for several years. She held the shilling in her 
hand for some time, and said : — 'This carries me back 



PSYCHOMETRY 6i 

to a time of confusion and much anxiety, with a feel- 
ing that everything depended upon a successful result. 
This shilling brings me a vision of a very low woman, 
ignorant and drunken, with whom you had much better 
have nothing to do. There is a great deal of fever 
about. I feel great pains, as if I had rheumatic fever 
in my ankles and joints, but especially in my ankles 
and my throat. I sufifer horribly in my throat; it is 
an awful pain. And now I feel a coarse, bare hand 
pass over my brow as distinctly as if you had laid 
your hand there. It must be her hand. I feel the 
loss of a child. This woman is brought to me by 
another. She is about thirty-two years ; about five 
feet high, with dark brown hair, grey eyes, small, 
nicely- formed nose, large mouth.' " "Can you tell me 
her name?" asked Mr. Stead. "Not certain, but I 
think it seems like Annie.'' "That is all right," said 
Mr. Stead, and he told her the story of that shilling. 
About a month afterwards, Mr. Stead tried a Swedish 
opera singer, who had clairvoyant powers, with the 
shilling. She pressed it to her brow, and then she 
told Mr. Stead "she saw a poor woman give him, from 
her pocket-money, the last shilling she possessed. She 
has a great admiration for you, she said. She seems 
to think you have saved her, but she is not une grande 
dame. Indeed, she seems to be a girl of the town." 
Mr. Stead said : — "I had not spoken a word, or given 
her the least hint of the story of the shilling." Now, 
what are the facts? Mr. Stead says that he "was 
standing his trial at the Old Bailey, a poor outcast 
girl of the streets, who was dying of a loathsome dis- 
ease in the hospital, asked that the only shilling that 
she possessed in the world, might be given to the fund 
which was being raised in his defence. It was handed 
to him when he came out of jail, with, 'From a dying 
girl in hospital, who gives her last shilling,' written 
on the paper." He (Mr. Stead) has carried it about 



62 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

him ever since, never allowing it to be out of his pos- 
session for a single day. 

The symptoms which the first Clairvoyante, or Psy- 
chonietrix, described were very like those which this 
poor creature was suffering from in her dying hours. 
It is too probable that the donor was a low, drunken 
woman. 

These two readings are actually more psychometric 
than clairvoyant, because, from the clue furnished, they 
went back and described the conditions and surround- 
ings of the woman who parted with this shilling. They 
were not thought-readers, because they did not de- 
scribe what was passing in Mr. Stead's mind. Mr. 
Stead's experiences fairly illustrate the exercise, in the 
earlier stages of employment, of the psychometric 
faculty. 

While engaged writing the ''Real Ghost Stories,'' 
Mr. Stead says : — ''My attention was called to a young 
lady, Miss Catherine Ross, of 41 High Street, Smeth- 
wick, Birmingham, who, being left with an invalid 
sister to provide for, and without other available pro- 
fession or industry, bethought herself of a curious gift 
of reading character, with which she seems to have 
been born, and had subsequently succeeded in earning 
a more or less precarious income by writing out char- 
acters at the modest fee of 5s. You sent her any 
article you pleased that had been in contact with the 
object, and she sent you by return a written analysis 
of the subject's character. I sent her various articles 
from one person at different times, not telling her 
they were from the same person. At one time a tuft 
of hair from his beard, at another a fragment of a 
nail, and a third time a scrap of handwriting. Each 
delineation of character differed in some points from 
the other two, but all agreed, and they were all remark- 
ably correct. When she sent the last she added, 1 
don't know how it is, but I feel I have described this 



PSYCHOMETRY 63 

person before/ I have tried her since then with locks 
of hair from persons of the most varied disposition, 
and have found her wonderfully correct." 

"All these things are very wonderful, but the cumu- 
lative value of the evidence is too great for any one to 
pooh-pooh it as antecedently impossible. The chances 
against it being a mere coincidence are many millions 
to one/' 

I believe had this young lady, or others thus en- 
dowed, had the training, such as Buchanan, Denton, 
or other experienced teachers give their pupils, she 
would make a high class psychometer. 

Rev, Minot J, Savage had a paper in a recent num- 
ber of The Arena, on Psychical Research, etc., in which 
he said — "On a certain morning I visited a psychom- 
etrist. Several experiments were made. I will relate 
only one, as a good specimen of what has occurred in 
my presence more than once. The lady was not en- 
tranced or, so far as I could see, in any other than her 
normal condition. I handed her a letter which I had 
recently received. She took it, and held it in her right 
hand, pressing it close, so as to come into as vital 
contact with it as possible. I had taken it out of its 
envelope, so that she might touch it more effectively, 
but it was not unfolded even so much as to give her 
an opportunity to see even the name. It was written 
by a man whom she had never seen, and of whom she 
had never heard. After holding it a moment she said, 
'This man is either a minister or a lawyer; I cannot 
tell which. He is a man of a good deal more than 
usual intellectual power. And yet he has never met 
with any success in life as one would have expected, 
considering his natural ability. Something has hap- 
pened to thwart him and interfere with his success. 
At the present time he is suffering with severe illness 
and mental depression. He has pain here' (putting her 
hand to the back of her head, at the base of the brain). 



64 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

*'She said much more, describing the man as well 
as I could have done it myself. But I will quote no 
more, for I wish to let a few salient points stand in 
clear outline. These points I will number, for the 
sake of clearness : — 

1. "She tells me he is a man, though she has not 
even glanced at the letter.'' 

2. *'She says he is either a minister or a lawyer; 
she cannot tell which. No wonder, for he was both; 
that is, he had preached for some years, then he had 
left the pulpit, studied law, and at this time was not 
actively engaged in either profession." 

3. *'She speaks of his great natural ability. This 
was true in a most marked degree." 

4. "But he had not succeeded as one would have 
expected. This again was strikingly true. Certain 
things had happened — which I do not feel at liberty 
to publish — which had broken off his career in the 
middle and made his short life seem abortive." 

About eighteen years ago a lady in Swansea sent 
me a lock of hair, and asked me to send her my im- 
pressions. I did so, which I remember were not pleas- 
ant. I informed her, as near as my recollection now 
serves, that the person to whom the hair belonged was 
seriously ill. No earthly skill could do anything for 
him. Diagnosing the character of the insidious dis- 
ease which was then undermining a once powerful and 
active organisation, I felt constrained to add he would 
live six weeks, I held the envelope, with its contents, 
in my left hand, and wrote the impressions as they 
came with my right. I remember hesitating about 
sending the letter, but eventually sent it. The accu- 
racy of my diagnosis, description of the patient, and 
the fulfilment of the prophecy as to his death were 
substantiated in a Swansea paper. The Bat, The pa- 
tient was no other than Captain Hudson, the British 
master mariner who sailed the first ship on teetotal 



PSYCHOMETRY 65 

principles from a British port, and who subsequently 
became one of the most powerful of British mesmer- 
ists. The lady who sent the lock of hair was his wife, 
and the lady who contributed the letter to the papers 
was his widow. 

LESSONS IN PSYCHOMETRY. 
How To Develop The Psychometric Faculty. 

Class Experiments. — The sensitives are not to be 
magnetised or unduly influenced by positive manner 
and suggestions, but are to sit in their normal state 
(and without mental effort or straining to find out 
what they have in their hands), and simply give ex- 
pression to their impressions — sensations, tastes, etc., 
if any, and no matter how strange to them these may 
be. Let the experimenter or operator place different 
metallic substances in their hands, taking care that 
these substances are carefully covered with tissue paper 
or other light substance, which will help to hide their 
character, and at the same time not prevent their in- 
fluence being imparted, or try them with medical sub- 
stances. In those sufficiently sensitive, an emetic will 
produce a feeling of nausea. The substance must be 
put down before it causes vomiting. Geological speci- 
mens can be given — a shell, a tooth, or tusk. Let the 
experimenter record the utterances patiently, and seek 
confirmation of the description from an examination 
of the specimen subsequently. He should not know 
what special specimen it is previous to the psy- 
chometer's declared opinion. Good specimens are 
best. Thus a fragment of pottery, a piece of scori, or 
a bit of brick from, say, Pompeii would present ma- 
terial from which the psychometrist could glean strong 
and vivid impressions. 

If a medical man is not satisfied as to the correct 
pathological conditions of his patient, he might ask the 



66 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

psychometer to take some article of the patient in 
hand, and get, in the sensitive's own — and therefore 
very likely untechnical — language, what he feels and 
sees regarding this particular patient's case. Unsus- 
pected abscesses and tumors have been correctly 
pointed out in this way. 

In the same way a correct diagnosis of character 
can be given in many instances more correctly, more 
subtle, and penetrating in detail, than estimates built 
upon mere external and physical signs of temperament 
and cranial contours. 

Lay a coin on a polished surface of steel. Breathe 
upon it, and all the surface will be affected save the 
portion on which the coin lay. In a few minutes 
neither trace of breathing nor of the coin is likely to 
be seen on the surface of the polished steel. Breathe 
again, and the hitherto unseen image of the coin is 
brought to light. In like manner, everything we touch 
records invisibly to us that action. Hand your sen- 
sitive a letter which has been written in love or joy, 
grief or pungent sorrow, and let them give expression 
to their sensations. As the breath brought back the 
image on the steel, so will the nervous and the psychic 
impressionability of the sensitive bring to light the 
various emotions which actuated the writers who 
penned the letters. I have brushed the surface of the 
polished plate with a cameFs-hair brush, yet on breath- 
ing upon it the image of the coin previously laid upon 
it was distinctly visible. The mere casual handling of 
letters by intermediates will not obliterate the influence 
of the original writers; they have permeated the paper 
with their influence, so that, if a score or more of 
Psychometrists held the paper, they would coincide 
perhaps not in their language, but in their descriptions 
of the originals and the state of their minds while 
writing. 

The experimenter may help, by asking a few judi- 



PSYCHOMETRY 67 

cious but not leading questions, to direct and guide the 
attention of the Psychometrist. The description will 
be a capital delineation of the individual who wrote 
the letter. We have frequently tested the sincerity of 
correspondents, real and other friends, by this process. 
If the results have sometimes been unpleasant revela- 
tions, we have yet to find in any case that we have been 
mistaken. How is the sensitive able to glean so much 
of the real character of the original? one is inclined 
to ask. While writing, sincerity and earnestness leave 
a deeper impression than indifference, pretence, or 
ordinary come-to-tea politeness. Some letters are in- 
stinct with the writer's identity, individuality, mas- 
culinity, earnestness, and enthusiasm. Others are 
lacking in these things, because the writers were de- 
void of these qualities, while others vary at different 
times. The writer writes as his soul moves him, and 
the writing expresses his aims and hopes as they appear 
to his external consciousness. While writing, his soul 
draws his image on the paper, and pictures out thereon 
his real thoughts; and w^hen the sensitive gets hold of 
the letter, outstands the image of the writer and the 
imagery of his thoughts. The psychic consciousness 
of the psychometer grasps the details and describes 
them. 

The strange science of psychometry is of profound 
interest to all. Psychometers are to be found in every 
household. The whole subject is one about which a 
good deal more could be easily written, but this 
must do. 

Those who desire to understand Psychometry can- 
not do better than read up fully the literature of the 
subject, and those who desire to practise Psychometry 
may do much to ascertain whether they possess the 
faculty in any degree ; but all are warned to have noth- 
ing to do with cheap so-called Professors who under- 
take to develop their powers, a self-evident absurdity. 



M 



CHAPTER V. 

THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 
AND MENTAL TELEPATHY. 

Thought-Transference is a phase of ''psychic per- 
ception/' In some respects it bears a greater relation 
to feeling than sight. It is distinguished from pure 
Clairvoyance by the result of experiment. For in- 
stance, suppose I had in the Rothesay case designed 
M. C, the Clairvoyante, should see '^a maid in the 
room, dressed in a black dress, with neat white collar 
and cuffs, wearing a nicely-trimmed white apron, and 
a white tulle cap with bows and streamers, or that a 
black-and-white spotted cat lay comfortably coiled upon 
the hearth-rug, or some other strongly projected men- 
tal image/' Now, suppose while M. C. was examin- 
ing the room, she declared she saw the maid, and de- 
scribed her, or the cat, or other objects projected from 
my mind, and described these, then this would be a 
case of Thought-Transference, 

There is a distinction between Thought-Transference 
and Thought-Reading. It is no mere fanciful distinc- 
tion either. Thought-Transference occurs when the 
ideas, thoughts, and emotions of one mind are pro- 
jected by intense action and received by the sensitive 
and impressionable mind of another — awake or asleep 
is immaterial — so long as it occurs without pre-ar- 
rangement and contact. 

Telepathy is a more vivid form of sudden and un- 
expected thought-transference, in which the intense 
thoughts and wishes of one person, more or less in 
sympathy, are suddenly transferred to the conscious- 

68 



MENTAL TELEPATHY 69 

ness of another. The thoughts transmitted are often 
so intense as to be accompanied by the vision of the 
person, and by the sound of their voice. 

Telepathy bears about the same relation to Th ought- 
Transference as ''second sighf does to Clairvoyance. 
Thought-Transference and Clairvoyance can be cuhi- 
vated. Not so Telepathy and Second Sight, They are 
phenomena, which belong to the unexpected, portents 
of the unusual, or sudden revelations of what is, and 
what is about to happen. Doubtless, there are con- 
ditions more favorable than others for inception of 
these. One needs to be ''in a quiet spirit'' before 
Telepathic and Second Sight messages are secured. 
Hence it is noticed Telepathic revelations mostly come 
in the quietude of the evening, just before sleep, be- 
tween sleep and waking, and under similar conditions 
favourable to passivity and receptivity in the sensitive 
or percipient. 

In Thought-Reading both operator and sensitive are 
aware that something is to be done, and indications, 
intentional or otherwise, are given to make the thought- 
reader find out what is required. More or less sensi- 
tiveness is required in both phases. In Telepathy and 
Thought-Transference the psychic elements are in the 
ascendency; in Thought-Reading they may be more or 
less present, but intention, sensitiveness, and muscular 
contact are adequate enough, I think, to account for 
the phenomena^ as witnessed at public entertainments 
— so far, at least, as these entertainments are genuine. 

How do we think ? what are thoughts ? and how are 
thoughts transferred? are reasonable questions, and 
merit more elaborate solution than is possible in an 
elementary work like this. 

We think in pictures; words are but vehicles of 
thought. In Thought-Transference we can success- 
fully project actions, or a series of actions, by forming 
in our minds a scene or picture of what is done and 



70 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

what is to be reproduced. When, however, we think 
of a sentence consisting of few or many words, there 
is nothing more difficult to convey. Words belong to 
our external life here, and are but arbitrary expres- 
sions and signs for what in the internal or soul-life 
is flashed telepathically from mind to mind. 

Thoughts are things for good or ill, veritable and 
living realities, apart from our exterior selves, inde- 
pendent of words. The more words, often the less 
thought. Try to teach a child by the slow, dry-as-dust 
method of words, and the road to knowledge is hard 
and wearisome. Convey the same thoughts by illus- 
trations and experiments, and the child's mind at once 
grasps the ideas we desire to convey. 

Thoughts are living entities (how poor are words!) 
which our own souls have given birth to, or created 
in the intensity of our love, wisdom, or passion. The 
Eastern Adepts teach, ''A good thought is perpetuated 
as an active, beneficent power, an evil one as a malig- 
nant demon. The Hindoo calls this Karma, The 
Adept evolves these shapes consciously; other men 
throw them off unconsciously.'' How true in our 
experience! The thoughts of some men blast, while 
those of others bless. There is wisdom in thinking 
deliberately, intelligently, and therefore conscientiously, 
not passionately, impulsively, or carelessly. 

In Thought-Transference the reproduction of exact 
words and dates seems to. be most difficult. Indeed, 
the transmission of arbitrary words and signs is ap- 
parently the most difficult. The reason, I conclude, is, 
ideas belong to our inner, real, and spiritual life, and 
names, words, and dates to our exterior existence. 
The ideas can be expressed in the language of the sen- 
sitive, according to culture or the want of it. If the 
true lineaments of the picture are given, need we be too 
exacting as to the special frame surrounding the 
picture? 



MENTAL TELEPATHY 71 

Notwithstanding the difficulty in transference and 
the reading of the exact words, this has also been fre- 
quently done. A very high state of receptivity and 
sensitiveness, however, is necessary in the percipient. 

An incident of exact word- reading is related by 
Gerald Massey, the distinguished philosopher and 
poet. Mr. Massey met Mr. Home at the London 
terminus just on his (Mr. Massey 's) arrival from 
Hertfordshire. Home and he entered into conversa- 
tion, during which Home suddenly said *'he hoped 
Mr. Massey would go on with his poem." 

"What did he mean?" asked Mr. Massey. 

"The poem," replied Home, "you composed four 
lines of just now in the train." 

This was surprising to Mr. Massey, who had actu- 
ally composed, but had not written, the four lines of a 
new poem on the journey. Mr. Massey challenged 
Mr. Home to repeat the lines, which Home did word 
for word. 

How are thoughts transferred? No one can posi- 
tively say. There are theories enough — the theory of 
brain-waves and of a universal impalpable elastic ether, 
of undulating motions, or other more or less ma- 
terialistic hypothesis.* 

* Thought is accompanied by molecular vibrations in the grey 
matter of the brain, and these brain molecules, like everything 
else, are immersed in and interpenetrated by ether ; this being so, 
their vibrations must set up wave-motions in the ether, and they 
must spread out from the brain in all directions. Further, these, 
brain-waves, or thought waves, being thus sent out into space, 
will produce some phenomena, and, reasoning by analogy, we may 
expect that— as in the case of sound-waves— sympathetic vibra- 
tions will be set up in bodies similar to that which generates the 
waves, if those bodies are attuned to respond. Again, reason- 
ing by analogy, we may expect— as in electric resonance— that such 
oscillations would be set up as are found when electric waves are 
sent out and, meeting a circuit in consonance with them, set up 
in that circuit oscillations like their own. 

In view of these facts, which are well ascertained, it does not 
seem improbable that a brain engaged in intense thought should 
act as a centre for thought-radiation, nor that these radiations. 



72 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

We know there are no psychic phenomena without 
their corresponding physical correlatives, and, in this 
life at least, these are in thoughts evolved without pro- 
ducing corresponding molecular changes in the brain. 

We notice the human brain is capable of being, and 
is, acted upon daily by much less subtle influences than 
mental impressions. We can appreciate light impinged 
upon our cerebral centres at the rate of millions of 
undulations, and sound as the result of 20,000 to 30,- 
000 vibrations per second. So, sensitives, when in the 
mesmeric or psychic states, are readily acted upon, and 
respond as in thought-transference to our thoughts 
and sensations, and veritably read our minds, because 
of the rapport or sympathy thus established. Whether 
they become percipients of the nervous-vibrations 
which escape from our own sensorums or not, what 
does it matter if they can, as they frequently do, read 
our minds ? 

A means of illustrating sympathy: If a sounding 
board is placed so as to resound to all instruments of 
an orchestra, and connected by a metallic rod of con- 
siderable length with the sounding-board of a harp or 
piano, the instrument will accurately repeat the notes 
transmitted. 

The nervous system, in its two- fold relation to the 
physical and spiritual being, is inconceivably more 
finely organised than the most perfect instrument, and 
is possessed of finer sensitiveness. 

proceeding outwards in all directions, should affect other brains 
on which they fall, provided that these other brains are tuned 
to vibrate in unison with them. 

Light waves are etheric vibrations, and it would seem that these 
brain-waves should "partake of the nature of light" If so, why- 
should it not be possible to obtain, say, by means of a lens, a 
photographic impression of them? 

Such a thought-record suitably employed might be able to 
awaken at any subsequent time in the brain of a person sub- 
mitting himself to its influence thoughts identical to those 
recorded. 



MENTAL TELEPATHY 73 

It must not be inferred that all minds are equally 
receptive. The Hindoo Masters teach that: Light 
falls on all substances alike, but is very differently 
affected by each substance. One class of bodies absorb 
all but the yellow rays, another all but the blue, another 
all but the red, because these substances are so or- 
ganised that they respond only to the waves of the 
colors reflected. 

All persons do not hear alike. They receive certain 
sounds and are deaf to all others, although the sound- 
waves strike all tympanums alike. All persons do not 
see alike. Some perceive colors, others cannot dis- 
tinguish between one color and another, or can only 
see the more striking colors — fineness of shade they 
do not perceive. So there are individuals who cannot 
receive mental impressions, unless, indeed, they are 
conveyed in the baldest and most esoteric manner. In 
a word to convey and receive impressions they must 
be sent along the line of the least resistance, that of 
true sympathy. These must be one mind adequate to 
the projection, and another mind sufficiently sensitive 
to receive and record the thoughts projected. 

Transference Of Taste In The Mesmeric State. 

Th^ operator will slowly eat or taste half-a-dozen 
lozenges or sweets of different flavours, and the sub- 
ject or sensitive most in sympathy with him will also 
in imagination eat of and describe the taste of the vari- 
ous sw eets. Concerning which he has no other knowl- 
edge than the thoughts of eating and tasting, which are 
transmitted to him from the brain of the operator. 
The mere eating of the lozenges by the ^operator, 
without his being fully aware of the fact, will deepen 
the impression on the operator's mind, and help to 
concentrate his energies for the transmission of his 
ideas or mental suggestions to his subject. 

A step or two further and we find with greater sen- 



74 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

sitiveness the sensitives can read the thoughts of the 
operator, whether the thoughts were transmitted in- 
tentionally or not. 

We are compelled to acknowledge that certain 
emanating undulations from the sensorium can gener- 
ate different series of thoughts, and that the trem- 
bling organisation, or parts of it, can, by flinging or 
throwing off distinct or particular pulsatory waves, 
inoculate or produce like vibrations in another person's 
brain, making up in it identical thoughts, following 
by like feelings, and often in this way, perhaps, capa- 
ble of inciting, through sympathy, like enactments of 
deeds and pursuits. 

Thought-Transference In Dreams. 

The following interesting letter appeared in The 
Phrenological Magazine (p. 260, April, 1890), and as 
I know^ of the bona- fides of the writer, I have much 
pleasure in reproducing it : 

^'Dear Sir: This morning, at a little before four 
o'clock, I awoke as the outcome of great mental dis- 
tress and grief through which I had just passed in a 
dream, my body trembling and in a cold perspiration. 
I had been walking with my little boy, aged five and 
a-half years, and some friends. A heavy rain over- 
taking us, we stood up for shelter ; and venturing forth 
into a maze of streets, I missed my two friends, who, 
threading among people, had turned into a side street 
without my noticing. Looking for them, my boy 
slipped from me, and was lost in the crowd. I became 
bewildered by the strange labyrinth of streets and 
turnings, and quickly taking one of them which gave 
an elevated position, I looked down on the many wind- 
ings, but could nowhere see my boy. It was to me an 
unknown locality, and, running down among the peo- 
ple, I was soon sobbing aloud in my distress, and call- 



MENTAL TELEPATHY 75 

ing out the name of the child, when I awoke. With 
wakefulness came a sense of relief and thankfulness. 
Gladly realising that the whole was only a dream, and 
still scarcely awake, I was startled by a cry of terror 
and pain from an adjoining bedroom — such a cry 
as could not be left unheeded. It came from the same 
child, and pierced me with a distinct sense of pain. I 
was immediately by his side. My voice calmed him. 
T thought I was lost' was all he could say, and doubt- 
less he was soon composed and asleep again. To me 
the coincidence was too remarkable and without 
parallel in my own experience. Later on, at breakfast, 
the child gave further his dream that he had been out 
with me and was lost. I am only familiar with such 
things in my reading. Dr. de Lawrence's article in 
last month's Phrenological Magazine (page 143) men- 
tions that, 'when the Prince Imperial died from 
assegai thrusts in Zululand, his mother in England felt 
the intensity of his thoughts at the time, felt the savage 
lance pierce her own side, and knew or felt at the time 
that she was childless.' But I am not of the spirituelle 
type, with only a thin parchment separation between 
this life of realities and the great beyond, of those 
who, privileged to live in close touch with the future, 
are the subjects of premonitions and warnings. My 
spirituality 4 to 5 and reflectives 6 point rather the 
other way, but I shall, nevertheless, hold tight to the 
lad. What is the underlying cause of the coincidence? 
Which of the two minds influenced the other, if 
either?" — Yours Truly, 

G. Cox. 

In this case of Thought-Transference, I am inclined 
to the opinion that the father's mind influenced that of 
the boy, the son being the more sensitive of the two. 
Mr. Cox dreamt an ordinary but pretty vivid dream, 
which aroused from its nature vivid and intense 



76 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

anxiety on his part. A similar train of thought was 
awakened in the child. If thought-transference occurs 
in waking life, why not in sleep, when, as abundant 
telepathic instances testify, the phenomenon is of most 
frequent occurrence. 

Thought-Transference At Sea. 

The percipient was Captain G. A. Johnson, of the 
schooner "August H. Johnson." He had sailed from 
Quero for home. On the voyage he encountered a 
terrible hurricane. On the second day he saw a dis- 
abled brig, and near by a barque. He was anxious to 
reach home, and, thinking the barque would assist the 
brig, continued on. 

But the impression came that he must turn back and 
board the brig. He could not shake it off, and at last 
he, with four men, boarded the brig in a dory. He 
found her deserted, and made sail in her. After a time 
they saw an object ahead, appearing like a man on a 
cake of ice. The dory was again manned, and set to 
the rescue. It proved to be the mate of the barque 
''Leawood" clinging to the bottom of an overturned 
boat, which, being w^hite, appeared in the distance 
as ice. 

The Captain's sensitiveness may have been aroused 
by the exhaustion of so much wakefulness and care 
during the length of the storm, the sight of the dere- 
lict and deserted brig; at the same time the premoni- 
tions were opposed to his own desire and anxiety to 
get home. 



MENTAL TELEPATHY ^^ 

Thought-Transference From The Dying To The 

Living In A Dream. 

The following by E. Ede, M, D., of Guilford (/. S. 
P. R., July, 1882) : 

"Lady G. and her sister had been spending the 
evening with their mother, who was in her usual health 
and spirits when they left her. In the middle of the 
night the sister awoke in a fright, and said to her hus- 
band, *I must go to my mother at once; do order the 
carriage. I am sure she is ill.' The husband, after 
trying in vain to convince his wife that it was only a 
fancy, ordered the carriage. As she was approaching 
the house, where two roads met, she saw lady G.'s 
carriage. When they met, each asked the other why 
she was there. The same reply was made by both — *I 
could not sleep, feeling sure my mother was ill, and so 
I came to see.' As they came in sight, they saw their 
mother's confidential maid at the door, who told them 
when they arrived that their mother had taken sud- 
denly ill, and was dying, and had expressed an earnest 
wish to see her daughters." 

The percipients having been so lately in company 
and sympathy with their mother possibly rendered 
them more susceptible to her influence. 



Thought-Transference From The Dead To The 

Living In A Dream. 

Related by Mr. Myers, page 208, Proceedings 
S. P. R., July i8p2: 

**About March, 1857, Mrs. Mennier, in England, 
dreamt that she saw her brother, whose whereabouts 
she did not know, standing headless at the foot of the 
bed with his head lying in a coffin by his side. The 



78 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

dream was at once mentioned. It afterwards appeared 
that at about the time the head of the brother seen, 
Mr. Wellington, was actually cut off by the Chinese 
at Sarawak/' On this case, Mr. Gurney remarks — 
*This dream, if it is to be telepathically explained, 
must apparently have been due to the last flash of 
thought in the brother's consciousness. It may seem 
strange that a definite picture of his mode of death 
should present itself to a man in the instant of receiv- 
ing an unexpected and fatal blow; but, as Hobbes 
said, 'Thought is quick.' The coffin, at any rate, may 
be taken as an item of death-imagery supplied by the 
dreamer's mind." 

'*We have now, however," says Mr. Myers, **seen a 
letter from Sir James Brookes {Rajah of Sarawak), 
and an extract from the Straits Times of March 21st, 
1857, in the (London) Times for April 29th, 1857, 
which makes it, I think, quite conceivable that the 
dream was a reflection of knowledge acquired after 
death, and the head on the coffin had a distinct mean- 
ing." Sir James Brookes says : "Poor Wellington's 
remains were consumed [by the Chinese] ; his head, 
borne off in triumph, alone attesting his previous mur- 
der." The Straits Times says : *'The head was given 
up on the following day. The head, therefore, and the 
head alone, must have been buried by Mr. Wellington's 
friends ; and its appearance in the dream on the coffin, 
with a headless body standing beside it, is a coincidence 
even more significant than the facts which Mr. Gur- 
ney had before him when he wrote." 

The transmission of thought from a spirit discar- 
nate to one incarnate, whose body was asleep, should 
not be esteemed impossible. Abundant instances, 
equally well substantiated, might be recorded did space 
permit. 



MENTAL TELEPATHY 79 

Thought Transference In Prayer. 

This may be a common experience, but only once in 
my life have I had conscious knowledge of anything 
so remarkable. For some years before devoting my 
attention to these subjects, I resided in Liverpool, and 
had been a member of the Zion Methodist Church, or 
Chapel, in Everton, and in time was duly placed on 
the local preachers' plan. In this capacity I became 
acquainted with a worthy old man — a chapel-keeper, 

who looked after the meeting house situated in 

street. He had been an old soldier, and possessed 
something of the faith of the Roman centurion. Poor 
in the things of this world, he was rich in the sub- 
limity of his love to God and the nobility and purity 
of his life. I never think of ''Old Daddy Walker'' but 
his character and this incident comes to my mind, 
viz. : Ohe morning I was hurrying down West Derby 
Road to business, and, indeed had got halfway down 
Brunswick Road, when I commenced to think about 
old Walker (I had not seen or thought of him for 
some months). I attempted to throw aside my im- 
pressions, as passing thoughts. No use. I became 
worried about him, and was asking myself questions. 
"Was he ill?" "Maybe, he is in want?" "I think 
I will hurry back and see?" I had not much time to 
spare. It would consume fully twenty minutes to 
walk back. After hesitating, I went up Brunswick 

Road and up West Derby Road, and to Street, 

and tapped at the door of his house. There was no 
response. The street door was slightly ajar. I went 
in, and found the old pair on their knees in the kitchen. 
He was engaged in earnest prayer. After kindly 
salutations, I apologised for intruding, and told him, 
as I went to business, "I had been bothered about him 
in my mind, and did not feel satisfied until I had seen 
him, and knew the truth." He told me, as near as I 



8o THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

can recollect, ''He was at his last extremity. There 
was no food or fuel in the house, he had no money, 
and he had been putting the whole case before the 
Lord.'* I had half a sovereign about me, which I had 
taken out of the house for an entirely different pur- 
pose. This I gave to him. The old man, rubbing a 
tear from his eye, looking at his wife, said : "Mary, 
don't thee doubt the Lord anymore. I said He would 
help, and He has given me what I asked for." Old 
Walker went on to explain, not only his bad fix, but 
that he had no money to buy firewood with. He meant 
that he bought up old wood and tar-barrels, which he 
cut up into lengths and made into bundles, and sold 
for firewood ; and that he had asked the Lord for ten 
shillings, as he wanted that sum to buy a certain lot 
which could be obtained for that amount. The old man 
obtained what he asked for. He believed the Lord had 
answered his prayer. 

Thought Transmission In Prayer. 

Since writing the above, the following came under 
my notice. In the J. S, P. R., May, 1885, Dr, Joseph 
Smith, Warrington, England, says: 

'T was sitting one evening reading, when a voice 
came to me, saying: ^Send a loaf to James Grady's.' 
I continued reading, and the voice continued with 
greater emphasis, and this time it was accompanied 
with an irresistible impulse to get up. I obeyed, and 
went into the village and brought a loaf of bread, and, 
seeing a lad at the shop door, I asked him if he knew 
James Grady. He said he did, so I bade him carry it 
and say a gentleman sent it. Mrs. Grady was a mem- 
ber of my class, and I went next morning to see what 
came of it, when she told me a strange thing happened 
her last night. She said she wished to put the children 



MENTAL TELEPATHY 8i 

to bed, they began to cry for want of food, and she had 
nothing to give them. She then went to prayer, to 
ask God to give them something. Soon after which 
the lad came to the door with the loaf. I calculated, 
on inquiry, that the prayer and the voice I heard ex- 
actly coincided in point of time.'' 

"More things are wrought by prayer 
Than this world dreams of." 

Those who know anything of Methodism, will know 
this. The Methodists have a profound faith in prayer, 
and also there is a very close relationship between a 
class-leader and his members. Dr. Smith was, there- 
fore, all the more likely to be the percipient of the 
woman's earnest and intense prayer to God to feed 
her hungry children. The Infinite must have an infinite 
variety of ways of fulfilling His own purposes. Is it 
unreasonable to suppose that prayer to Him may not 
be answered indirectly ^'through means?" and that 
thought-transference, as in this instance, may be one 
of the means ? If not, why not ? 

Charitable institutions are maintained; orphans 
saved, reared, and educated; missions of mercy or- 
ganised, and the necessary means found by the agency 
of prayer. Beside ^%e angels," in That sphere just 
beyond the ken of the physical, may not our waves of 
thought, projected by prayer, be impinged upon, and 
directly affect susceptible minds in this world, by direct- 
ing their attention to those works of faith and good- 
ness? Prayer is the language of love, and the out- 
come of true helplessness and need. A praying man 
is an earnest man. In prayer thoughts are things — 
bread upon the waters. 

Thought Transference In Distress. 

I withhold the names for family reasons. Mr. 

had been in business in Glasgow for nearly thirty years, 



Sz THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

and, from comparatively small beginnings, had been 
very successful. Latterly, he and his family resided 

in , a suburb of Glasgow. Both in the city and 

in this district Mr. was very much respected, be- 
ing a church member and holding office in Free 

Church. For some time Mr. had been ailing, and 

his medical attendent advised him to take a sea voyage 
— a thorough change, etc. In compliance with this 
advice, he took a trip up the Mediterranean. Miss 
, a distant relative of his, had been visiting Glas- 
gow, and, being on terms of intimacy with the family, 
knew of his departure from Glasgow. About two 
weeks after he left, she also left Glasgow for Edin- 
burgh. While in the train for Edinburgh, she was 

overcome with great anxiety for Mrs. , his wife. 

Unable to shake the feeling off, instead of going to 
Edinburgh, she actually got out of the train halfway, 
at Falkirk, and took the next train back to Glasgow, and 
went to her friend's house, whom she found in great 

distress. Mrs. had, about the time Miss 

became distressed in the train, received word that her 
husband was found dead (having committed suicide) 
in his berth on the steamer at Constantinople, The 
state of mind of the newly-made widow re-acted on 

that of Miss . As Miss was not only a dear 

friend, but was noted for her earnest piety, the widow 
at once earnestly desired to see her. When last these 
two friends saw each other, everything seemed to con- 
tribute to happiness and comfort. Mrs. was 

looking forward hopefully for the return of her hus- 
band, restored in health, to herself and children. 

Thought Transference In Ordinary Experience. 

Whether Thought-Transference is a ^'relic of a de- 
caying faculty," or the "germ of a new and fruitful 
sense," daily experience in the lives of most furnish 



MENTAL TELEPATHY 83 

abundant evidence of the existence of such a power. 
My own life, while in India, has supplied me with 
abundant evidence of the fact. It is a common occur- 
rence with us for either my Disciples or I to utter or 
give expression to the thoughts, which, for the time 
being, occupied the conscious plane in the other. It 
is possible there may have been, as there has been in 
some instances, some half phrase uttered or manner 
shown, which in the one have aroused the thoughts 
expressed by the other. 

Another experience is the anticipation of letters and 
their contents. This is most frequent in the morning, 
just before rising. I frequently see the letters and the 
shape of the envelope and style of address before I 
actually see the letters on my consulting table. 

The most common experience of all is recognised 
by the adage, ''Think of the Devil, and he will appear.'' 
I have noted this in particular. Sitting at the table, 
there is "popped" into my mind a thought of someone. 

I will remark, "I think Mr. or Mrs. will be here 

to-day," and they come. Certainly, all who have come 
in this way have been students or friends ; and although 
they appear subsequent to the thought of them, the 
evidence in favor of Thought-Transference may not be 
esteemed conclusive. I say it is a common experience. 
I don't think we should despise any experience, be- 
cause it is common. To be common, indicates there 
is a basis, amounting to a psychic law, to account for 
its existence. 

Another common experience is the crossing of let- 
ters. One person suddenly recollects "So-and-so;" 
and writes them a letter excusing delay in writing, 
retailing news, and in all probability writing on some 
subject more particularly than on others. Strange to 
say, the person you have written to has also been en- 
gaged writing to you about the same time and on simi- 
lar subjects. Both have possibly posted their letters 



84 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

at such a time that the delivery has been crossed. I 
do not say this proves anything; yet I cannot help 
thinking the experience is too frequent to be accounted 
for by the usual explanation of accident or coincidence. 

Mark Twain's article on ''Mental Telegraphy'' is 
fresh in the minds of most magazine readers. Whether 
that article had a basis in the writer's actual experience 
or not, it is a pretty common experience with most 
literary men. 

"Distance,'' says Mr. Tuttle, *'has inappreciable in- 
fluence on the Transference of thought. It may take 
place in the same room, or where the two persons are 
thousands of miles apart. As a personal experience, I 
will relate one of many similar incidents which have 
awakened my attention to this wonderful phenomenon. 
Sitting by my desk one evening, suddenly as a flash 
of light, the thought came to write an article for the 
Harbinger of Light, published at Melbourne, Australia, 
I had, by correspondence, become acquainted with the 
editor, W. H. Terry, but there had been no letters 
passed for many a year. I had not thought of him, 
or his journal for I do not know how long a time, 
and I was amused at first with the idea of writing on 
the subject suggested. But the impression was so 
strong that I prepared and forwarded an article. 
Nearly two months passed before I received a letter 
from Mr. Terry, requesting me to write an article on 
the subject on which I have written; and, making due 
allowance for time, the dates of our letters were the 
same. In our experience, this crossing of letters 
answering each other has twice occurred — the second 
by Mr. Terry answering a request of mine." 

Dr. Charles W. Hidden, of Newburyport, Mass., 
U. S. A., reports a somewhat similar experience to that 
of Mark Twain and the above, which was reported in 
a recent number of the Religio Philosophical Journal: 

A very peculiar plot impressed itself upon his mind, 



MENTAL TELEPATHY 85 

and he immediately based a story upon the plot. He 
read the story to his family, and was about to send it 
to a publication to which his wife had recently become 
a subscriber. When the next number arrived he 
opened it to learn how to forward his manuscript, 
and great was his surprise to find on the first page a 
story bearing the title of his own, and a plot almost 
identical with that which he had written. Parts of the 
published article appeared word for word. It is need- 
less to add that Dr. Hidden tossed his manuscript into 
his desk, and it is there yet. His explanation is, that 
he caught the title and the plot from another, just as 
Mark Twain caught the plot of the ''Big Bonanza'' 
from his friend Simmons. 

It would be nigh impossible to illustrate the various 
phases of Thought-Transference, ranging, as they do, 
from the association of ideas which may be aroused 
by a hint, a half -uttered word, or a gesture, to the un- 
mistakable facts of pure Mental Transference, and, 
higher still, to the region of pure psychism, where 
spirit influences inspire and direct spirit, and thought- 
bodies are no longer recognised as mere subjective 
spirits but living and tangible objective personalities, 
albeit discarnate. 

We can say truly with the Hindoo Sages, ''There is 
a power that acts within us, without consulting us.'' 



CHAPTER VI. 
THOUGHT-READING EXPERIMENTS. 

Having given satisfactory evidence of the reality of 
Thought-Transference, I propose in this Chapter to 
show how this can be done, and how to give Thought- 
Reading entertainments. 

Experimental Mind-Reading may be distinguished, 
for the sake of study, as the abnormal, the normal, and 
the spurious. 

The abnormal, that which takes place in trance, 
dream, vision, or which may be the product of artificial 
somnambulism or of some super-sensitive condition of 
the nervous system, through disease. We observe 
Thought-Transference m these conditions, rather than 
attempt to cultivate it. 

The normal, where the phenomena takes place in the 
ordinary waking state, without muscular contact. 

The spurious, Mind-Reading so-called, as the result 
of musculation or contact, but which is, in fact, only 
muscle-reading. 

In both the abnormal and normal, direct transference 
of thought from mind to mind can only take place 
when there is the necessary development of psychic 
activity in the agent or operator, and the equally 
necessary sensitiveness in the sensitive or percipient. 

Classed under Muscle-Reading are those perform- 
ances and games in which the sensitive reads not the 
mind, but some special desire (of those with whom 
he or she may be placed in contact), by a "careful 
study of the indications unconsciously given by the 
agent or operator to the percipient or reader." 

86 



THOUGHT-READING EXPERIMENTS 87 

In both abnormal and normal Thought-Reading, 
then, are presented innumerable instances of the pos- 
session of psychic faculties; in the muscle-reading 
phase there may be, and it is possible all successful 
''readers" have, more or less sensitiveness, to take 
impressions. 

To cultivate Mind-Reading in a sensitive, the opera- 
tor should first cultivate in himself the habit of pro- 
jecting mental pictures, and think of things as seen by 
the eye, rather than as described by words. This is 
best done by calling to mind a landscape or domestic 
scene, by conceiving and mentally building up the same, 
and, by degrees, getting each feature or detail well 
stamped in his mind. 

It is well in the beginning of these experiments to 
make the scene as simple, and yet as natural and as 
complete in detail, as possible. For instance, let the 
operator think of such a picture as this: A bright 
little landscape, having a well-defined cottage on the 
left, just on the margin of a small lake; boat with two 
figures in the foreground ; rising bank upon the right ; 
and a little higher up a defined windmill, well thrown 
out by the perspective of blue-ridged and undulating 
mountains, and sky in the background. 

The agent, having satisfied himself of his sensitive's 
whole or partial powers of psychic perception, might 
ask: ''Do you see anything now?" and quickly and 
deliberately go to work, meanwhile formulating defi- 
nitely such a picture as the above ; even allowing him- 
self to get into ecstacies over the scene — ^peopling the 
cottage and the mill, and introducing imaginary con- 
versation between the individual dwellers therein, and 
so on. The sensitive will describe the whole as the 
same is felt or perceived. This experiment may appear 
to some to be impossible, but the word impossible 
belongs to the limitations of sense, and not to the range 
of the things possible to the human spirit. 



88 THOUGHT-^TRANSFERENCE 

Some sensitives and mediums take impressions from 
their surroundings — their Clairvoyant revelations are 
often nothing more than so much Mind-Reading. 
Nothing More; but this nothing more is a great deal. 
Certainly, it may not prove the existence of spirit, 
apart from the sensitive's own powers; but it does 
prove that man has other avenues of knowledge than 
those which he is usually credited. 

The development of Mind-Reading in the psychic 
states may be encouraged by a little judicious assistance 
or direction. Invite the sensitive to pay attention to 
So-and-so; to visit places, to examine rooms, or de- 
scribe people whom the sensitive has never seen. But 
the places, the rooms, and the persons must be dis- 
tinctly in the minds of those persons, or agents, with 
whom he or she is placed in rapport. 

During these experiments the sensitive will say, *7 
see this/' or describe that other, as if he actually saw. 
Hence the infinitely close relationship of mind-read- 
ing to clairvoyance. Thought-Reading in Spiritualism 
will be referred to in the next chapter. 

Once possessing a good sensitive, the development 
of the power, as a matter of fact, lies particularly in 
the operator's ability to concentrate and focus his 
thoughts- — to think clearly, calmly, vividly, and dis- 
tinctly himself — and to deliberately and conscientiously 
project the same. 



The Normal Experiments Without Contact. 

An idle hour or so can be profitably filled up on a 
long winter's evening with experiments in Mind-Read- 
ing, without resorting to mesmerism. It will be found 
that there are Mind-Readers in every family — some 
boy, girl, or young woman more sensitive than the rest 
to impressions. 



THOUGHT-READING EXPERIMENTS 89 

Sometimes it has been found, when two or more 
persons think of the same object, as in the ''willing 
game," the impression becomes more vivid, and the 
sensitive finds, or describes, the article, or thing, more 
easily. It has been left to the versatility of Professor 
Lodge, of the University College, Liverpool, to pro- 
ject two distinct images at the same time to a sensitive. 
He requested two friends to look at a paper that he 
had given to each. On one paper a square was drawn, 
and on the other an oblique cross. Neither person 
knew what the other was looking at, and after they 
had looked intently at these diagrams for a short time, 
the sensitive, who was in a normal condition, but 
blindfold, said: "I see two figures — first I see one, 
and then, below that, another. I do not know which 
I am to draw. I cannot see either plainly." Having 
been requested to draw what she saw, she drew a 
square, with an oblique cross inside of it. On being 
questioned, she replied that she did not know why she 
placed the cross in the square. The two images pro- 
jected by distinct minds, intermingled, and were pro- 
duced, as narrated by Professor Lodge. We can 
readily see that confusion will arise where a number 
of persons are thinking of different subjects, or when 
some positive minded individual declared mind-reading 
to be an impossibility. 

Something after the above experiments of Professor 
Lodge are those which were conducted by Mr. Guth- 
rie, a London barrister, and reported by him to the 
Society of Psychical Research. 

A number of diagrams, roughly drawn off-hand at 
the time, were shown to the agent or precipitant, Mr. 
G., the subject, or percipient, a lady, being blind-fold. 
During the process of transference, the agent looked 
steadily and in silence at the drawing, the subject 
meanwhile sitting opposite to him, and behind the 
stand on which the drawing lay, so that it was entirely 



'90 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS IN THOUGHT- 

TRANSFERENCE. 




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92 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

out of her range of vision had her eyes not been blind- 
folded. 

The agent stopped looking at the drawing when the 
subject professed herself ready to make the attempt to 
reproduce it. The time occupied thus was from half 
a minute to two or three minutes. Then the handker- 
chief was removed, and she drew with a pencil what 
had occurred to her mind. 

The reproductions were made generally without the 
agent following or watching the process. We repro- 
duce several of the attempts here, giving both the suc- 
cesses and the failures. Even the failures show the 
effect Mr. G. produced upon the reader's mind. 

The experiments conducted so successfully in the 
family of the Rev. Mr. Creery, of Boston, and made 
public by Professor Barrett in The Journal of Psy- 
chical Research, show to what extent Thought-Reading 
may be successfully carried on in the quietude and 
confidence of a well-regulated family. 

The mode of procedure adopted by Professor Bar- 
rett to test the faculty as possessed by the children was 
as follows: *'One of the children,'' says Professor 
Barrett, "was sent into an adjoining room, the door of 
which I saw was closed. On returning to the sitting- 
room, and closing the door also, I thought upon some 
object in the house, fixed upon at random. Writing the 
name down, I showed it to the family present, the 
strictest silence being preserved throughout. We then 
all silently thought of the name of the thing selected. In 
a few seconds the door of the adjoining room was 
heard to open, and after a short interval the child 
would enter the sitting-room, generally speaking, with 
the object selected. No one was allowed to leave the 
sitting-room after the object had been fixed upon, and 
no communication with the child was conceivable, as 
her place was often changed. Further, the only in- 
structions given to the child were to fetch some object 



THOUGHT-READING EXPERIMENTS 93 

in the house that I would think upon and, together 
with the family, silently keep in mind, to the exclusion 
as far as possible of all other ideas/' 

Now, if Professor Barrett had told the children to 
select a word, and upon coming into the room were to 
spell or state what the word was, I question if the ex- 
periments would have been so successful. The articles 
thought of, whether a hair brush, an orange, wine 
glass, apple, or a playing card, were of such a nature 
that a definite picture or image of the thing thought of 
could be formed in the mind. The father, mother, 
and even Professor Barrett, seem to have been es- 
pecially in rapport with the little sensitives, and thus 
all the more readily were they able to transmit the 
mental picture of the articles selected. Trick or col- 
lusion in this case is absolutely out of the question. 
It would be interesting to know if these young sensi- 
tives, who were so bright in 1881, still retain, or have 
increased or lost, their powers. 

There were 312 trials made during Professor Bar- 
rett's stay of six days, who adds — "One most striking 
piece of success, when the things selected were divulged 
to none of the family, w^as five cards running named 
correctly on the first trial — the odds against this hap- 
pening once in our series, being considerably over one 
million to one. We had altogether a good many 
similar batches, the two longest runs being eight con- 
secutive successes, once with cards and once with 
names, when the adverse odds in the former cases were 
over one hundred and forty-two millions to one and 
on the latter, something incalculably greater. Walls 
and closed doors made no difference'' 

Something after the foregoing style are drawing- 
room entertainments given. If failure result, no one 
is blamed, and ridiculous mistakes only lend pleasure 
to the company, where all are known one to the other. 

The usual method is to select someone for Thought- 



94 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

Reader, Lady or gentleman, matters little. He or she 
is sent out of the room. Some one in the room gener- 
ally takes the lead, who may suggest the article to be 
selected and hidden, which the thought-reader is to 
find. The article selected is thought of by the entire 
company. The reader is to go to the place where it 
is, lift it, put it down, or give it to some one else; or to 
find a certain book and remove it from its place on 
table or elsewhere, and put it somewhere else ; to come 
in and sit on a certain chair, or to lead someone else to 
it, or perform whatever other test that is decided upon. 
The reader is admitted into the room, and, if at all 
receptive, will do or say something like what is de- 
sired — often going direct to the spot, lifting the ar- 
ticle, or doing the things which the company have de- 
cided upon. 

A good plan is to get the assistance af one or two 
friends, use a bag of counters, upon which numbers 
ID to 100 are placed; also a smaller bag with numbers 
I to 9. Let the sensitive sit at a table in such a position, 
so as, if not blind-folded, he or she could not see what 
the agent has in his hand. Use the small bag to begin 
with. Let one friend hold the bag, another select a 
number. When both have carefully looked at it let it 
be handed to the agent, who shall fix his eyes steadily 
upon the figure, and picture the said figure in his 
mind. The sensitive will in one or two minutes either 
say or write down what the figure is. If these experi- 
ments become satisfactory, the larger bag can be used. 
The experiments with numbers must not be continued 
too long, and so weary the faculty. In the same way 
a number of simple outline designs can be used — these 
presented one by one to the agent or operater — a fish, 
a boy and barrow, a fireman with escape, a negro and 
banjo, a lecturer on platform, an orange, a book, etc., 
such as are found in children's school books; repeat- 
ing the same processes as above. No one must speak 



• THOUGHT-READING EXPERIMENTS 95 

but the agent and the percipient, nor is the agent to 
know what the numbers or designs are before the ex- 
periments are commenced. 

Should failure occur, select another medium. In a 
company of twenty to thirty persons it will be very 
strange if a good thought-reading sensitive is not 
found. In which case, more serious experiments may 
be attempted subsequently, and attain scientific value. 

The Thought-Reader should be blindfolded, and 
resign himself to the influences of the agent or opera- 
tor. Although he understands that something is ex- 
pected of him, he is not to be anxious about what, but 
simply act as he feels himself prompted. 

In proportion as the sensitive is able to give up 
anxiety and desire, so will he be able to become a good 
reader. 

The operator, or agent, must concentrate his mind 
upon what is required, and will the sensitive to do it. 
When two or more persons, or all in the room, are 
concentrating their minds upon the thing, object, or 
word, the sensitive may all the sooner be influenced; 
but I prefer that one person should be chosen as the 
operator, and all intended experiments be submitted 
to him. 

The process is analogous to that of mesmerism. We 
see traces here of the influence of mind over mind. 
We see the operator determines and the subject per- 
forms, although it may not be very clear how thought 
is actually projected, or in what way it is received, 
other than already suggested. 

Practice makes perfect in this as in other things. 
Success is proportionate to success. A reader show- 
ing a degree of susceptibility at first attempts will 
generally improve by subsequent efforts. In a similar 
way, operators will make headway with practice. Some 
operators and sensitives will be successful at first trial ; 
others again have failed after repeated attempts. 



9^ THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

Plenty of time should be given for all first attempts. 
Let the operator, for instance, keep his mind thor- 
oughly fixed on the object. Should the reader be going 
away from it, let the agent strongly wish him to go 
back, touch it, lift it, etc., as previously decided upon 
by the company. 

All sensitive persons are likely to make good 
Thought-Readers; the less sensitive, muscle readers. 



Muscle-Reading Entertainments. 

Thought'Transference, like Clairvoyance, is un- 
equalled in power and manifestation, even with good 
percipients, and cannot be turned on like, and with, 
the evening gas, to enlighten and entertain. Hence 
those enterprising entertainers, like Bishop and Cum- 
berland, depended on "muscle-reading," and "backed- 
up their show" with tricks, some of them so puerile 
and barefaced that a third-rate conjuror would be 
ashamed of them. 

The general public, however, enjoyed these enter- 
tainments. They were something new, and, like 
"angel's visits," were few and far between. Not only 
so, but that wonderful combination, the general pub- 
lic, saw that these entertainments were patronised by 
men of science, such as Carpenter, Beard, Hammond, 
Baron Kelvin, and others deeply in love with strictly 
materialistic hypothesis. They were also patronised 
by "society." These entertainers undertook to read 
thoughts and expose spiritualism ; and as the dear pub- 
lic loves mystery, it went. But the dear public don't 
like to be "taken in," hence these performances are 
generally repeated — in the next town. 

The following, reported from St. John's N. B., 
January 17, 1887, in the Herald, is a good illustration 
of the psychic and muscular indications involved in an 



THOUGHT-READING EXPERIMENTS 97 

experiment of this kind : "In a 'Mind-Reading' per- 
formance on Saturday night, after several examples 
indoors, the ^reader,' a young man who belongs to 
this city, asked for an outdoor test. The party sepa- 
rated, one remaining with the reader, and hid a pin 
in the side of a little house used by the switchman of 
the New Brunswick Railway at Mill Street. In their 
travels they went over the new railway trestle, a most 
difficult journey. The reader was blindfolded, and 
one took his wrist, but at the trestle hesitated, fearing 
to venture, and was told by the reader to let go his 
wrist and place his hand on his head. The subject 
did so, and the reader went upon the trestle. Some 
of the party suggested that the bandage should be 
removed, but he told them not to mind, and, the sub- 
ject again taking the wrist, he went over the ice and 
snow-covered sleepers. With a firm step he crossed 
to the long wharf, went over as far as the mill gates, 
then quickly turned, retraced his steps, and went back 
to the corner of Mill Street. Here he rested a minute, 
then again took the subject's hand, and in less than 
five minutes afterwards found the pin. At the con- 
clusion of the test, the reader inquired what the matter 
had been when they first reached the trestle. It was 
easily explained. The storm had covered the sleepers 
with snow, and it was thought dangerous, even for a 
man not blindfolded to cross them. The subject felt 
anxious for the reader's safety, and hesitated about 
going across. The tests were most satisfactory. 
Thought or mind-reading applied to these experiments 
is a misnomer. If this young gentleman could Vead 
thoughts' by musculation, or contact, he would have 
known what the matter had been when they first 
reached the trestle. Muscle-reading is not thought- 
reading. Hence it is classified as spurious." 

Any number of illustrations could be given of such 
entertainments. The foregoing is sufficiently adequate 



98 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

to give an idea of how these muscle (not thought) 
reading entertainments are given. 

For drawing-room entertainments, first blindfold 
the reader, who is conducted out of the room while the 
experiments are decided upon. The blindfolding helps 
to mystify friends, who think the work is rendered 
more difficult. As a matter of fact, the reader's work 
is rendered much more easy. It helps to isolate him, 
and leaves his mind much less entrammelled by sights 
and impressions which would otherwise prevent him 
receiving the impressions which it is desirable he 
should receive. 

Suppose the reader is to locate the seat of an imagi- 
nary pain, the assistant or operator pro tern, will grasp* 
with his left hand the sensitive's right wrist and hold 
it firmly. While the reader is endeavouring to locate 
the pain, the operator must give up his will, and think 
intently on the situation of the pain. The reader will 
then locate it. 

There is less secret in this than appears at first 
sight. The sensitive, or reader, is simply guided or 
led by the operator, and the reader's hand either stops 
partially over or is pressed upon the seat of the pain. 
He then declares he has found the seat of the pain, and 
points it out accordingly. 

A somewhat similar method is adopted in finding 
the pin, or the hole in which a pin had been. The 
racing and flying about of public Thought-Readers 
are only so much "theatrical side," thrown in to give 
dramatic effect to their performances. 

In reading the numbers on bank-notes, or spelling 
out certain words, a board with the numerals and the 
alphabet (see front cover) is placed in sight of the 
audience. The reader takes the wrist of the operator, 
and, commencing at the left side of the board, pro- 

* The contact is usually made by the agent taking the wrist, or 
by placing his hand on the brow of the reader. 



THOUGHT-READING EXPERIMENTS 99 

ceeds from figure to figure till he detects the right one. 
The operator thinks only of one figure or letter at a 
time. This is the whole secret of "musculation." Even 
when the operators are sincere, and are careful to 
give no conscious indications to the reader, yet it is 
almost certain, if they keep their mind fixed on the 
desired figure or letter, object or place, they will un- 
consciously indicate to the reader the right number 
or letter. 

To find an article, number, or do a certain act, it 
is necessary for the reader to give prompt obedience 
to the indications given him. The concentration of 
attention necessary can only come with practice. No 
end of surprises and amusement will follow if the 
operator honestly concentrates his mind upon the 
things to be done, and a good muscle-reader is found 
to take up the indications. Apparently, the most diffi- 
cult feats are sometimes accomplished. 

During the experiments, the reader will have curious 
sensations, such as heaviness of feeling, dread and 
uncertainty, and then blankness of mind, followed by 
an impulse to do something. If the reader can keep 
his mind passive enough, he may receive impressions, 
as in thought-transference; anyway, it is advisable to 
wait for the impulse to move and to do. The highest 
percentages of success always follow. 

General directions for the cultivation of experi- 
mental Thought-Transference and Mind-Reading given 
in these pages are sufficiently specific to be found 
thoroughly practical by those who have put them into 
practice ; and certainly no harm, either mental or phys- 
ical, can come to those who are willing to give them a 
fair trial. 



CHAPTER VII. 

SPIRITUALISM. 

Any reference to Spiritualism here will be dealt with 
in the light of the preceding chapters. 

It has been established on the clearest evidence that 
Thought-Transference and reception between two 
nearly harmonised or sympathetic human beings, or 
embodied human spirits, are possible, and this without 
intermediate sense or physical agencies. If, then, be- 
tween mind and mind on earth, distance or space being 
no obstacle, matter no hindrance, why not between 
mind disincarnate — if the reader can conceive of mind 
apart from the human brain and organism — and mind 
incarnate? // not^ why not? 

It seems to me very difficult, if we accept the first, 
to reject the latter conclusion. If we accept the latter, 
we are committed in the main to belief in Spiritualism, 
ancient and modern. If we admit that it is possible 
for a disembodied spirit to communicate with us in 
dream, vision, or, as in the case of Miss Howett, have 
our hands influenced to write, or that we see and con- 
verse with spirits, as in the case of Mary Reynolds, 
we then admit, and accept in the main, the essential 
features of what is known as Spiritualism, The sub- 
ject is not only interesting, but of vital importance; 
therefore, I think, the fear of being called a 'Spiritual- 
ist,'' or any other name, should not prevent us sound- 
ing to the depths the psychic possibilities of the human 
soul. 



lOO 



SPIRITUALISM loi 

THE AUTO-TRANCE. 
The Spirit Within Us. 

There is Spiritualism and Spiritualism. That which 
I am most interested in is not so much a hankering 
after spirits, ''spirit controls/' and the phenomena, 
generally recognised as the right thing in certain cir- 
cles, as that other Spiritualism which leads to an honest 
endeavour on our parts to ascertain if we are spirits, 
here and now, albeit clothed for the time being in an 
organic envelope, relating us to our present estate. 

If we are embodied spirits, it will be possible for 
the spirit-man (the essential self — ego, I am), in each 
human being to communicate at times, and under cer- 
tain fitting conditions, with other fellow-beings, under 
such circumstances, and in such a way, as to make it 
clear : — 

(a.) That the communications could not have been 
transmitted and received by the ordinary channels, or 
physical sense organs, which in ordinary circumstances 
appear essential to our exchange of thought, 

(&.) That the exchange of thought, in independence 
of the ordinary sense channels, will demonstrate that 
man must possess other, extraordinary or psychic, or- 
gans for the transmission and the reception of thought. 

Both positions I have endeavoured to sustain on the 
foregoing pages ; and, lastly, concerning Spiritualism, 
I have arrived at the profound conclusion that spirit- 
communion — that is, Thought-Transmission, from the 
disembodied to the embodied — is a solemn fact. After 
carefully eliminating all the possibilities of self-decep- 
tion — auto-trance, discreet degrees of consciousness, 
of natural and acquired Clairvoyance, of Thought- 
Transference, and Mind-Reading, and lastly, the 
puerile performances of conjurors and the simulated 
phenomena of tricksters — there remains evidence of 



I02 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

disembodied or disincarnate spirit, and of such con- 
trol influencing and directing the actions of men, just 
as one man in this life influences and directs the actions 
of another. 

What I esteem, however, as satisfactory evidence 
might not be evidence to another; and I for one do 
not think it necessary to open up the Hfe chambers of 
my psychic experiences to the indifferent, the thought- 
less, or the sceptic, to furnish the desired evidence. 
Others must travel by the way I have come to under- 
stand something of that way. All men cannot believe 
alike, hence it will not be surprising that some will 
accept as sufficient evidence of spirit what others would 
deem insufficient. 

It is not my intention meantime to advocate Spirit- 
ualism. I only refer to it, in so far as it is related to 
'Clairvoyance and Thought-Transference/' However, 
Phenomenal Spiritualism is not a matter of belief so 
much as of evidence, and many eminent thinkers have 
been compelled by the force of the evidence to accept 
Spiritualism now, who, a quarter of a century ago, 
would have hesitated, principally through fear of ridi- 
cule, to speak of the subject in language of ordinary 
civility. 

While I am convinced that such communications be- 
;ween the so-called dead and the living are possible, I do 
not know and feel satisfied that much which is accepted 
as evidence of the existence and influence of spirits 
by the majority of the unthinking and excitable crowd 
who rush after novelties, and perchance call them- 
selves ''spiritualists/' is traceable to no other or higher 
source than our own innate, but little understood, 
human or psychic powers. I have arrived at this con- 
clusion also, as the result of carefully investigating 
spiritualism, and it is therefore not an a priori hypoth- 
esis conveniently elaborated from my own or borrowed 
from the brains of others who are opponents of Spir- 



SPIRITUALISM 103 

itualism. It is probable, had I not devoted the greater 
part of my life to Hindu Spiritualism, as one of the 
factors in human character, I should have known but 
little of that sympathetic transference of thought from 
one mind to another, or of the light which that fact 
throws upon our dual or compound existence. 

In this ''sympathetic transference of thought'' we 
find a solution to the problem of Spiritualism, whether 
old or new. I conclude, with the Hindu Adepts, ^'The 
true springs of our organisation are not these muscles, 
these veins, these arteries, which are described with 
so much exactness and care. There exist in organised 
bodies internal occult forces which do not follow the 
gross mechanical laws we imagine, and to which we 
would reduce everything." Or, as the High-Grade 
Adepts put it more strongly — ^'Beyond the limits of 
this visible anatomy commences another anatomy, 
whose phenomena we cannot perceive; beyond the 
limits of this external physiology of forces, of action, 
and of motion, exists another inznsihle physiology, 
whose principles, effects, and laws are of the greatest 
importance to knowf^ 

It may be esteemed reprehensible to ''seek com- 
munion with the deadf but to know ourselves, to 
fathom this invisible physiology, whose principles, 
effects, and laws are of such importance to under- 
stand, I hold to be not only legitimate but perfectly 
laudable. How can we serve God {Nature), whom 
we have not seen, if we do not understand ourselves, 
whom we think we have seen, or the laws which gov- 
ern our being, as created by Nature? To know our- 
selves as we should, we ought not to neglect the search 
for "the spirit within us." 

The Rejection Of The Psychic. 

Many persons — scientific, theological, learned, and 
illiterate — reject the psychic, and refrain from inves- 



I04 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

tigating, either from constitutional bias or from crass 
ignorance; and such have played the part of learned 
Sadducees or low fellows of the baser sort before any- 
thing having the remotest flavor of spirit. The man 
of science is rendered purblind by ''my hypothesis/' 
the theologian by ''my belief/' the man of the world 
by "my business/' or "my position." The respectable 
church-goer — who vaccinates his children, as he has 
them baptised, because it is the proper thing to do — 
has neither the head nor heart, apparently, to under- 
stand anything beyond the common material ideas of 
the hour. He would crucify all new thought, or new 
Spiritualism for that matter, as the Jews did Jesus, the 
Master, because the new doctrines promulgated and 
the new wonders performed tend to subvert the present 
respectable order of things. 

The worship of Diana is not confined to ancient 
Ephesus. The great Diana of old was the type of 
that "Respectable Custom" which the majority of man- 
kind worship and obey to-day, because, as of yore, it 
conserves their vested interests, official connections, 
and brings them "much gain." As for the man in 
the street — the multitude having no shepherd — ^he is 
always more or less hypnotised by the well-clad and 
well-fed, smug-faced worshippers of the aforesaid 
''Respectable Custom;" hence he is ever ready to shout 
"Crucify," or "Hurrah," or aught else he is influenced 
to do, especially if such exercises give him pleasure 
and excitement for the time being. He accepts or 
rejects as he sees "his betters" think best, and so, un- 
fortunately, is unfitted to a large degree for the intelli- 
gent investigation of his own nature. These form the 
largest group of rejectors of the phenomenal evidences 
of soul. 

The psychic, however, has suffered less from such 
rejectors than from those who claim to be recognised 
and known as converts and exponents of the same. 



SPIRITUALISM 105 

who at best have only shown themselves to be ''seekers 
after a signf' They may have run into the wilder- 
ness and have had a bit of miraculous bread, and yet 
not be a pennyworth the better of it in either soul 
or body — i,e,, life or conduct. These, by their foolish- 
ness, have prevented many well-meaning and other- 
wise able persons investigating the psychic, for the 
latter saw nothing in the lives of professed Spiritualists 
to make them desire to have anything to do with Spir- 
itualism, Moreover, coming in contact with the icono- 
clastic western Spiritualism as it is carried on in 
Europe and America, they have become disgusted with 
the crude and the coarse therein, as they have with the 
revelations, inspirations, and fads, advocated by cer- 
tain so-called mediums and Clairvoyants; and hence 
have rejected the wheat because of the apparent great 
quantity of tares. 

The Fraudulent In Spiritualism. 

I am afraid the trend of modern civilisation, which 
leads men from the beauties and quietude of hill and 
dale, of valley and river side, into crowded city life, 
has tended to make men exoteric. They run after 
signs and wonders without^ and too little to the spirit 
within. The broader view of being, and that self- 
culture and purity which arises from the exercise of 
man's innate powers, and makes for true regeneration 
and spiritual progress, here and hereafter, have been 
more or less sacrificed to the external and the phe- 
nomenal. 

The love of the phenomenal, in and out of western 
Spiritualism, has created a crowd of harpies, impos- 
tors, or fraudulent mediums — male and female — who 
trade on human credulity, some to earn a pittance, 
and others to gratify vanity. Men and women have 
been known to risk reputation for both. In this way 



io6 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

Spiritualism has its quota of deceivers and deceived. 

There are some people who must have phenomena, 
just as there are other people who will have sermons. 
If they don't get exactly what they want, they with- 
draw ''their patronage'' — ^the finances. So, if the pat- 
ronage is to be retained, phenomena and sermons have 
to be supplied — if the first are fraudulent or the latter 
stolen. 

Seeing how fugitive real psychological phenomena 
are — natural or induced — one must necessarily hesi- 
tate to accept so-called ''trance addresses," "inspira- 
tional orations," "medical controls," clairvoyant and 
second-sight exhibitions, which are supplied to order, 
to gratify patrons, at so much per hour. It is human 
to err, but the manufacturer of spurious phenomena, 
the impostor who trades on the ties, and the dearest 
of human affections, is a devil. There is no iniquity 
too low — earthly or devilish — to which he will not as 
readily descend to gratify his vampirish nature. 

I am not disposed to accept the infallibility of spirits 
for that of Popes — large or small — or professional 
media, in place of professional priests and ministers, 
and there is by far too much of this in the western 
Spiritualism of to-day. 

In the foregoing connection, I must refer to another 
source of error — this time, however, more related to 
physical rather than psychic phenomena — ^viz., the 
credulity of those who are disposed to believe that 
certain conjurors are aided in their performances by 
spirit agency. Personally, I would sooner believe that 
mediums for "Physical Phenomena" resorted to con- 
juring to aid ''spirits/' than believe that ''spirits'' re- 
sorted to "hanky-panky" to aid conjurors. No won- 
der "frauds" smile. Years ago I had to protest against 
this absurdity, when people — who ought to know bet- 
ter — talked this kind of nonsense about conjurors, as 
they do about certain fraudulent mediums now — ^viz.. 



SPIRITUALISM 107 

"they are aided by spirits." Owing to this lack of 
discrimination and want of trained discernment in 
Spiritualists and the general public, mediumistic frauds 
have fooled, to their utmost bent, fresh groups of 
dupes at home and abroad. 

I am none the less disposed to accept the genuine, 
because we recognise sources of error connected there- 
with, and are determined to set our faces against pal- 
pable frauds. 

Spiritualism Without Spirits. 

I will now turn from the wretched arena of impos- 
ture, duplicity, and credulity, to the genuine, but little 
understood, phenomena in Spiritualism. The student 
has been taught in this book that much which has been 
attributed to the agency of disembodied spirits is due, 
in many instances, to the action of man's own psychic 
states y ''the double, who is wiser than he/' and to the 
fact that, as often as not, trance states, automatic 
and planchette writing, are self-induced conditions. 
Equally so, Clairvoyance, Thought-Transference, and 
Psychometry do not require the "agency of spirit" to 
account for their existence as "gifts," qualities or 
powers. It will be time enough to admit such agency 
— that of disembodied spirits — when the evidence in 
each particular case is reasonably conclusive. / think 
this is the only wise and safe course to pursue. 

Clairvoyance may be natural or induced, self-culti- 
vated or cultivated by aid of a mesmerist. As it has 
been exercised naturally, and without any such aid, 
the exhibition of Clairvoyance — in itself — is no evi- 
dence of disembodied spirit-presence or control. 
Equally, the seeing of, and the describing of, spirits 
by a Clairvoyant — even if the descriptions are appar- 
ently accurate — may present no evidence of the real 
presence of such spirits, I do not deny that Clair" 



io8 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

voyants can see spirits, but the mere fact of being able 
to see and describe spirits, is not sufficient evidence — 
the seer is controlled by spirit-power to see, or that 
the spirits described are actually bona-fide spirits. Fre- 
quently, so-called spirits have no other existence than 
the image of them possessed by some positive-minded 
individual. A Clairvoyant, perceiving these images, 
might naturally enough conclude she was actually see- 
ing the spirits which she described. 

If Mr. Stead, for instance, is convinced that "Sister 
Dora,'' ''Cardinal Manning," or ''Lord Tennyson,'' are 
at his side, in his rooms, influencing and directing his 
mind, or at other times actually controlling his arm 
and hand to write, a Clairvoyant in sympathy with 
him may describe this or that other spirit he is thinking 
about. But that does not prove the spirit or spirits are 
actually present. 

A lady (Mrs. Davis), whose name has come promi- 
nently before the public as Mr. Stead's Clairvoyante, 
being questioned as to Mr. Stead's automatic writing 
and her own gift, said : — "I know probably more about 
that than anyone. I was in his office some time in the 
beginning of December last regarding the forthcoming 
publication of a book of mine concerning Spiritualism, 
The conversation turned upon spiritualistic automatic 
handwriting. I did not know the deceased lady who 
was writing through him, but I saw her behind his 
chair as distinctly as if she had been in the flesh. I 
described her position as she stood and her appear- 
ance. She at once wrote through Mr. Stead's hand 
confirming all I had stated concerning her in my de- 
scription. Mr. Stead's hand continued to write. I 
knew afterwards it wrote out a message stating that 
another spirit was in the room. Mr. Stead asked me 
if I could describe that spirit. I had to wait some 
little time before I detected it, and there I recognised 
as in the flesh a very famous personage recently dead, 



SPIRITUALISM 109 

whose loss was mourned all the world over in prose 
and verse. I carefully described the spirit as he ap- 
peared to me, and then Mr. Stead said I was right. 
But, I answered, I see another male spirit. Ask the 
deceased lady who is writing through you to write the 
name of the last spirit. Mr. Stead's hand automat- 
ically moved, and he wrote the name of a son of the 
famous personage already alluded to." Mrs. Davis 
says she has been strongly impressed with the fact 
that Mr. Stead has been selected by the spirits as their 
champion from the peculiar and unique position he 
occupies in the journalistic world, and he will be the 
agent who will break through the solid walls of bigotry 
and prejudice. Mr. Stead may or may not have writ- 
ten under spirit influence, and this lady may or may 
not have seen spirits as described. We must not con- 
clude in the latter case that Mr. Stead and his ''trust- 
worthy clairvoyante'* are stating anything they do not 
believe to be true. I believe she saw, as described or 
thought of by Mr. Stead, a "deceased lady;'' and that 
she also saw, as equally thought by him, ''a very fa- 
mous personage recently dead;" also "another male 
spirit," whose name she did not know until Mr. Stead 
wrote the name. This narrative, however interesting 
as to automatic writing and spirit agency in the opin- 
ions of those concerned, conveys no tangible evidence 
of either the one or the other. To us it is interesting 
in the fact that Mrs. Davis saw the spirits thought of 
by Mr. Stead, We must think twice before we can 
accept this as evidence of spirits and spirit-presence. 
Although it is possible those concerned have evidence, 
we have not. We have, however, evidence here of 
Thought-Transmission and psychic impressionability. 
When we read of persons who have been raised up, 
as mediums of St. Peter, St. Paul, or St. John, or a 
publishing company being run by Shakespeare through 
a special medium, and worked by a syndicate of Spir- 



I lo THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

itualistSj I think we are entitled to doubt these claims, 
even though a dozen clairvoyants vouched for the 
existence and presence of the aforesaid spirits. 

Psychometry furnishes evidence that many so-called 
spirits are not spirit "at all, at all" — only visions of 
the originals ; and the fact that such and such an indi- 
vidual has been accurately described — actions and man- 
ners carefully indicated — and this has been and is 
accurately done in health and disease daily — is no evi- 
dence, in itself, that Psychometers have seen spirits. 
Thus, when a Psychometer places a geological speci- 
men to his forehead, and describes an ''antediluvian 
monster," roaring and walking about, no one but a 
very shallow individual would imagine for a second 
the Psychometer was actually seeing the original. So 
many of the spirits and spectres seen do not proceed 
from our own brains, but from objects, relics, and old 
houses, which had been in times past impinged by the 
living presence and magnetism of the originals. Then 
we must take into consideration those spectres which 
proceed from our own minds, such as the realistic 
images which are sometimes projected from the back- 
ground of consciousness to our eyes and ears. Many 
so-called spirits are simply the product of diseased 
neurological conditions, in short, halhicinations, which 
arise from some derangement of the optic and auditory 
centres. The spectres seen by Nicolai gradually dis- 
appeared as he lost blood, as the prescribed leeches 
tranquilised his system. We have no reason to believe 
the spectres he saw, visions and what not, were actually 
either spirits or produced by spirits. 

Mind-Reading In Spiritualism. 

Mind-Reading is the commonest of most common 
experiences. I have known mediums to graphically 
describe scenes, persons, and incidents with such vivid- 
ness as to impress one they must be controlled by 



SPIRITUALISM III 

spirits intimately acquainted with the whole circum- 
stances which were revealed. Closer examination indi- 
cates that all the information so given by these me- 
diums was based on the thought-read phase. That is, 
the information was culled from the minds of spirits 
in the flesh, and did not come from disembodied 
sources. 

Some years ago I attended a series of seances in 
Liverpool. Nearly all the family were mediums of 
some sort. I was at this time very critical in my inves- 
tigations. Consequently, the following incident was 
not lost upon me. One evening the circle met, with 
the usual members. Shortly after the circle was 
formed, the daughter of the house went into the trance 
state. There were several controls, one of whom 
professed to be a man who, the day before, had been 
injured on board one of Lambert & Holt's steamers, 
which lay in the Bramley Moore Dock. The ''spirit" 
described the accident, how he was injured, and that 
he was carried to the hospital, and had ''passed away/' 
Owing to the suddenness of his death, he wished us 
to communicate with his family, and desired the circle 
to pray for him, etc. As near as I can recollect, when 
asked for further particulars, name, family, there was 
no definite reply. The medium quivered, and a new 
control had taken possession of her. I, however, 
neither doubted the bona- fides of the spirit nor the 
medium. I was especially interested in this control. 
I thought this time I had obtained a test of spirit 
identity. But alas for the imperfection of human 
hopes, I was doomed to disappointment. I clung to 
the idea the spirit would come back again, and when 
he got "more power," we would get the particulars 
he wanted to give us. He did not come back — and no 
wonder. Four months subsequently, I met the real 
Simon Pure in the flesh. 

To explain more fully : On the day previous to the 



1 12 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

seance mentioned, I was on board the newly-arrived 
steamer in question. The lumpers were getting out 
the cargo. This man had ben working on the top 
of the cargo in the main hold ''hooking on/' I paid 
no particular attention at the time to him, but an hour 
after I heard a great outcry, and saw a rush of men 
to the main hold. When I turned back and got there, 
I found this man senseless and bleeding. 

The hooks had slipped off a bale while easing out 
some cargo. One of them had caught the poor fellow 
in the mouth, and had torn up his cheek almost to the 
right ear. He was to all appearance dying. I tempo- 
rarily dressed his face, and the stevedore had him put 
on a stretcher and sent to the hospital. / did not know 
his name or the hospital to which he was removed. 
That day and the next the whole scene was vividly 
impressed on my mind. Hence that night the circum- 
stances at the seance seem to me to be quite natural. 
Everything advanced was wonderfully apposite and 
convincing. It was not till I saw the man, and con- 
versed with him, that my so-called test of spirit iden- 
tity resolved itself into so much thought or Mind 
reading, so that, even presuming the medium or sensi- 
tive was controlled by "'a spirit/' there can be no doubt 
the source of the spirit's information was purely 
mundane. 

Automatic and planchette writing, upon which so 
much reliance is placed, as furnishing evidence of 
''disembodied spirit control/' presents similar difficul- 
ties. The recording of forgotten incidents, and pre- 
dicting possibilities in the future, are not beyond the 
powers of the innate human spirit — wholly and utterly 
unaided by spirit agency. Therefore automatic writing 
— when genuine — does not necessarily furnish evidence 
of spirit control, not even when the person who writes 
believes, and honestly believes too, he is so controlled 
to write. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PHENOMENAL SPIRITUALISM. 

Automatic writing is a phase of Phenomenal Spirit- 
ualism most difficult to prove. In the majority of 
cases we are reduced to the awkward position of ac- 
cepting or rejecting the assertions of the persons who 
declare that the writing done by them is automatic — 
that is, written without thought and volition on their 
part. A close examination of this claim may lead to 
the conclusion that automatic writing is not impossible. 
Whether the controlling agent is ''the spirit within us,'' 
or a disembodied spirit, or both, is not a matter of 
much importance, if it is established, the writing is 
automatic. When messages are written without voli- 
tion, in the handwriting of deceased persons, signed 
by their names, such messages must be treated on their 
merits. I have seen messages written in this way. I 
have seen messages written, not only automatically, 
but direct. Some were written the reverse way, and 
could only be read by holding up to the light or to 
a mirror. The direct writing was done in an exceed- 
ingly short time, two or three hundred words in less 
time than an expert stenographer could write the same 
by the most expeditious efforts. The evidence in favor 
of Telepathic writing is not very strong, but of direct 
writing there appears to be abundant proof. 

Dr. Nichols, in his fascinating work, '^ Forty Years 
Of American Life,'' writes; — *'I knew a Methodist 
sailor in New York, a simple, illiterate, earnest man, 
who became what is called a test medium. He came 
to see me in Cincinnati, and one evening we had also 

"3 



114 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

as visitors two distinguished lawyers: one of them a 
brother of Major Anderson, "the hero of Fort Sum- 
ter;'' the other, a gentleman from Michigan, and one 
of the ablest lawyers practising in the Supreme Court 
of the United States. I had brought into the drawing- 
room a heavy walnut table, and placed it in the centre 
of the room. The medium sat down on one side of 
it, and the sharp Michigan lawyer, who was a stranger 
to us and the medium, on the other. The medium 
placed his fingers lightly upon the table. It tilted up 
under them, the two legs nearest him rising several 
inches. The lawyer examined the table, and tried to 
give it a similar movement, but without success. There 
was a force and a consequent movement he could not 
account for. There was no other person near the 
table, there was no perceptible muscular movement, 
and in no way in which it could be applied to produce 
the effect. 

"When there was no doubt on this point, the lawyer, 
at the suggestion of the medium, wrote with careful 
secrecy on five bits of paper — rolling each up like a 
pea as he wrote — the names of five deceased persons 
whom he had known. Then he rolled them about 
until he felt sure that no one could tell one pellet from 
the other. Then, pointing to them successively, the 
tipping table selected one, which the gentleman, with- 
out opening, put in his waistcoat pocket, and threw the 
rest into the fire. 

"The next step was to write the ages of these five 
persons at their death, on as many bits of paper, which 
were folded with the same care. One of these was 
selected, and again, without being opened, deposited 
in the lawyer's pocket, which now contained a name 
and a number indicating age. 

"With the same precautions the lawyer then wrote, 
in the same way, on bits of paper, the places where 
these persons died, the diseases of which they died, 



PHENOMENAL SPIRITUALISM 115 

and the dates of their decease, going through the same 
process with each. He had then in his pocket five little 
balls of paper, each selected by a movement of the 
table, for which no one could account. 

"At this moment the hand of the medium seized a 
pencil, and with singular rapidity dashed off a few 
lines, addressed to the lawyer as from a near relative, 
and signed with a name which the medium very cer- 
tainly had never heard. 

"The lawyer, very much astonished, took from his 
pocket the five paper balls, unrolled them, spread them 
before him on the table, and read the same name as the 
one on the written message, with the person's age, the 
place and time of death, and the disease of which he 
died. They all corresponded with each other and the 
message. No person had approached the table, and 
neither lawyer nor medium had moved. It was in 
my own house, under a full gas light, and, so far as 
I could see, or can see now, no deception was possible. 

"The written communication, which purported to 
come from a deceased relative of the gentleman, only 
expressed, in affectionate terms, the happiness at being 
able to give him this evidence of immortality." 

This incident is introduced here in illustration of 
one out of many phases of mediumship known to 
Spiritualists, We see here both psychic and physical 
powers exercised, not generally recognised as possible. 
A massive table moved without physical leverage or 
exertion, and ''Thoughts Read," which formed the 
basis of the message. Trickery and collusion in this 
instance are absolutely out of the question. The only 
questions which remain to answer are : "Did this me- 
dium possess in himself the powers referred to? or 
did he possess them in consequence of being controlled 
by a disembodied spirit, as claimed by the message?" 
Although the message in itself did not contain evidence 
of any other source of information than that emanat- 



1 16 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

ing from the lawyer's own mind, we are forced to the 
conclusion that either the medium or the spirit con- 
trolling the medium had power to read his mind, and 
of exerting what Professor Crookes and Sergeant Cox 
would call Psychic Force to move the table, and indi- 
cate what pellets to select. We have here evidence of 
an intelligence capable of exercising an unknown force 
and of reading thoughts — that intelligence claimed to 
be a human spirit. 

Trance Addresses. 

Trance and inspirational addresses, however, do not, 
in my opinion, furnish much evidence of the reality 
of spirit control. We are interested in the phenomena 
— taking for granted that these trance and inspira- 
tional states are genuine — although the evidence of 
external spirit control presented is often niL The 
controls may or may not be veritable realities to their 
own mediums — ^professional or otherwise — ^but this is 
of little value, as evidence, to the public. I have known 
mediumistic and otherwise sensitive persons to be con- 
trolled — i,e,, taken possession of by their reading. One 
. gentleman swallowed large doses of Theodore Parker. 
In time he thought of Parker, talked of Parker, and 
finally believed he was "inspired" by Theodore Parker. 
This gentleman had been a Unitarian before being a 
Spiritualist, and doubtless his mind had been broad- 
ened and brightened by his course of Theodore Parker ; 
but beyond his own belief and the evident state of 
excitability he exhibited when speaking under \this 
supposed control, there was actually no evidence of 
''spirit control'' worthy of notice. 

Mrs. Cora L. V. Tappan-Richmond, an inspirational 
medium, from America, delivered a series of remark- 
able addresses in England about twenty years ago. 
These were published by J. Burns, of Southampton 
Row, Holborn, W. C. A young gentleman from 



PHENOMENAL SPIRITUALISM 117 

Brighton heard and read the lectures, and finally 
budded forth as ''an inspirational speaker/' For a 
long time the public got nothing but the Tappan lec- 
tures diluted. We had the same marvellous, even 
flow, similar processes of reasoning, fertility of illus- 
tration, and unbounded capacity for assertion. No 
one dare say this person was not inspired by the spirits. 
It might have been a way the spirits had of breaking 
in their instrument, but I had a shrewd suspicion the 
young orator was controlled by his reading. I don't 
know how many others have been influenced in this 
way. I have noticed when a noted medium ''came to 
town/' delivered a number of addresses in public, or 
gave seances in private, immediately thereafter a num- 
ber of imitators professed — correctly or otherwise — 
principally otherwise — to have been controlled by the 
guides, who were supposed to control the medium 
aforesaid, and that they would soon be able to give 
addresses and manifestations, and what not. On the 
other hand, the noted mediums averred ''their guides 
never controlled any other than themselves/' etc. The 
conscientious investigator is left to wonder how much 
imitation, vanit3^ and self-deception have to do with 
such statements. 

Some of the most perfect oratory and some of the 
ablest and most cogent lectures and addresses I have 
ever listened to have been given by trance and inspira- 
tional mediums. It was stated, as evidence of spirit 
control, by those who professed to know, "that these 
mediums could not reason and speak that way in their 
normal condition/' All of which is worthy of con- 
sideration. At the same time I saw nothing inherently 
impossible — judging from a physiological or cerebral- 
physiognomic standpoint — to prevent these persons de- 
livering, unaided by spirit agency, the addresses re- 
ferred to. That a person speaks with greater ability, 
intelligence, or fluency in the trance state compared 



1 18 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

with his known powers in the waking state, cannot 
alone, be accepted as proof of spirit control. I have 
seen hypnotised subjects do the same. But the reality, 
or otherwise, or spirit agency, cannot be estimated 
by the superiority, or otherwise, of the addresses and 
messages given. 

In all public meetings and in seances where a me- 
dium is expected to give trance and inspirational ad- 
dresses, the platform is ''supported'' or the chair sur- 
rounded by sympathisers, whose presence is esteemed 
favourable to ''good conditions" — a "nebulous term'' 
better understood by Spiritualists than the public. 
When the address is, as is often the case, a miserable 
jumble of things inconsequential, old, experienced 
Spiritualists say it is owing "to had conditions," i.e., 
the influence of the audience on the speaker being 
conflicting and bad, hence the inconclusive rambling 
of the spirit's oration. Whether this is the true expla- 
nation or not, whether the medium was really con- 
trolled or not, or the addresses successful or not, the 
fact remains that Spiritualists admit that the "mes- 
sage" is not only "seriously modified," according to 
the channel (or medium) through whom it is given, 
but that it may be deflected and distorted by the in- 
fluences of the audience to whom it is given. What- 
ever the real cause of the imperfect oratory, what is 
this hut admitting the thoughts transferred from the 
audience to the sensitive either make or mar the utter- 
ance? If spirit utterance is thus influenced, it becomes 
a difficult matter to decide how much of the original 
message has reached us as intended, and how unwise 
it is for some to have their lives directed by such un- 
certain counsel. 

There are many persons so organised, that when 
they come in contact with Spiritualism, (not know- 
ing anything about Clairvoyance, Psychometry, 
Th ough t- Transference, Th ough t-Reading, etc. , ) are 



PHENOMENAL SPIRITUALISM 119 

so convinced by what they hear and see for the first 
time — so much out of the ordinary run of their expe- 
rience — the only way they can account for the phe- 
nomena is, ''that they must be the work of spirits, for 
no human being could tell what they knew, or what 
they wanted, save a spirit who could read their 
thoughts." This is just where, I think, the error creeps 
in. Those very revelations which they in ignorance 
so readily attribute as only possible coming from dis- 
embodied spirits, may be and are in some instances 
quite possible to man, unaided by any such agency. 

Many years ago I sat with Mr, Daznd Duguid, the 
Glasgow painting medium. I had a ''direct spirit paint- 
ing'' done. It was a correct — as far as I can recollect 
— painting of a small hotel and stead, in the North of 
India, where I as a child had been sent for my health. 
Neither Mr. Duguid nor the control claimed to possess 
any actual knowledge of me, or of the circumstances 
of my childhood. When I had an opportunity of at- 
tending the seance in question, I wondered if such a 
scene could be painted, and my wonder was greater 
when it was done. 

Here again, we have evidence of Thought-Trans- 
ference. Whether Mr, Duguid, by some occidt power, 
caused the direct painting to be done — his own spirit 
doing it while his body was in the trance state — or 
the painting was produced by one of his controls, many 
may not believe. I am willing to state my belief that 
the painting was not done by Duguid, the medium, or 
any other person present in the room. One of the 
controls of the medium claimed to have painted the 
little sketch, and, truth to tell, it is not more difficult 
to accept this hypothesis than "the spirit of the me- 
dium did it." In our ordinary experience of human 
nature, we do not find it usual for men to give credit 
to others — men or spirits — for what they are capable 
of doing and saying themselves. 



I20 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 



Reflections. 

It is quite possible, seeing that out of this life into 
the next, through the portals of death, pass all sorts 
and conditions of human beings, that in the next stage 
of existence — most closely allied to that in which we 
now live — mankind are not essentially different in 
character from what we find now. It is not, there- 
fore, necessary to call in the agency of demons, as dis- 
tinct from human spirits, to account for the phenomena 
of Spiritualism, If in artificial somnambulism and the 
phenomena of the psychic state the operating agent is 
an embodied human spirit, it is possible the same human 
spirit, albeit, disembodied, may still retain power to 
control or influence other human beings. 

There is another and more serious matter for con- 
sideration, concerning which our investigations of 
Spiritualism have thrown little or no light — Spirit 
Identity. Not only do their friends depart and never 
return, and many have promised to do so. How far 
are they certain when spirits have returned? They 
may have been deceived by their own impulsiveness, 
anxiety, and desire to feel and to know that ''they are 
not lost but gone before." Again, admitting the gen- 
uineness of physical phenomena, and conceding that all 
the communications are really made by disembodied 
spirits or intelligent beings like unto themselves, what 
proof do they possess that they are really what they 
represent themselves to be, or what they appear to be 
in spirit circles ? "A bad or mischievous spirit may, for 
aught they knew, personate their friends, penetrate 
their secrets, and deceive them with false representa- 
tions.'' This is certainly worth thinking about. My 
object in writing is not to turn my readers against 
Spiritualism, but to get them to bring into the inves- 
tigation judgment, not only to analyse evidence, but 



PHENOMENAL SPIRITUALISM 121 

the capacity to ''judge not according to appearance, 
but judge righteous judgment'' It is no part of my 
purpose to deal with the history, ethics, or even the 
phenomena of Spiritualism. That has been well done 
by others, I merely write to show that Spiritualism 
''has something in it/' and is of such importance that 
it is neither to be lightly rejected on the one hand, nor 
are its phenomena at all times to be attributed to agency 
of disembodied spirits. 

Western Spiritualism is a many-sided subject, and 
too vast in its proportions to be dealt with here,* and 
while I have no doubt that its pubHc mediumistic expo- 
pents are no more perfect than the rest of humanity — 
much is laid at their door which may have a basis on 
fact — yet I do think they often suffer unjustly. Firstly, 
from the cries of the ignorant — educated or otherwise, 
matters little — who charge them with fraud, simply 
because such people are ignorant of the psychic possi- 
bilities of man; and, secondly, from the admiring and 
thoughtless many who are prepared to accept the com- 
monest of psychic phases instanter as evidence of "dis- 
embodied spirit" presence and power. I have no doubt 
many phenomena are quite explicable on natural 
grounds. Setting aside the possibilities of self-decep- 
tion in untrained observers, and of fraud in dishonest 
mediums, and of genuine phenomena traceable to the 
powers of the "spirit which is within each of us," 



* Those who would know more of the real nature of Spiritual- 
ism and disembodied spirits, both good and evil, and desire to 
be lead along the paths of the deeper teachings of true Occultism 
And East Indian Magic, are referred to that massive volume 
by Dr. de Laurence, known as 'THE GREAT BOOK OF 
MAGICAL ART, HINDU MAGIC AND EAST INDIAN 
OCCULTISM," now combined "THE BOOK OF SECRET 
HINDU CEREMONIAL, AND TALISMANIC MAGIC,** 
Order No. 2, and fully described in our great catalogue. Price 
of this book is $6.75. Foreign, £1 9s prepaid, to any post office in 
the world. Messrs. de Laurence, Scott & Co. 



122 THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

there remains, to my mind, abundant evidence of the 
existence of '' discarnate spirit/' possessing all the at- 
tributes of the human spirit, as we know ourselves 
from the study of man as a psychological subject. 
Unfortunately, the very best evidence in favor of both 
''embodied'' and ''disembodied spirit" is not of that 
kind which is available for publicity, for it is only 
taught the Adepts in the Temples of India. Still, I 
hold, if there is evidence (psychological and physical) 
for disembodied spirit in Western Spiritualism, I am 
also satisfied there is abundant evidence for embodied 
spirit in the psychological experiences of life, apart 
from what we know of Spiritualism, 

I may fitly close these reflections by quoting the 
testimony of that keen scientific observer anent Phe- 
nomenal Spiritualism — namely, Cromwell F. Varley, 
Esq., F.R.S,: — 'Twenty-five years ago I was a hard- 
headed unbeliever. . . . Spiritual phenomena, how- 
ever, suddenly and quite unexpectedly was soon after 
developed in my own family. . . . This led me to 
inquire, and to try numerous experiments in such a 
way as to preclude, as much as circumstances would 
permit, the possibility of trickery and self-deception." 
... He then details various phases of the phenomena 
which had come within the range of his personal expe- 
rience, and continues : — "Other and curious phenomena 
had occurred, proving the existence (a) of forces un- 
known to science; (b) the power of instantly reading 
my thoughts; (c) the presence of some intelligence or 
intelligences controlling these powers. . . . That the 
phenomena occur there is overwhelming evidence, and 
it is too late to deny their existence.'' 

THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SPIRITUALISM 
is somewhat extensive. What books are best to rec- 
ommend to beginners is not any easy matter to decide. 
"THE BOOK OF DEATH, SOUL TRANSITION, 
HINDU SPIRITISM AND SOUL REINCARNA- 



PHENOMENAL SPIRITUALISM 123 

TION,"^ however, will repay perusal, and from the 
intellectual fitness, high moral tone, and spotless repu- 
tation of this book it may be safely recommended to 
all readers. 



*"THE BOOK OF DEATH, SOUL TRANSITION, 
HINDU SPIRITISM AND SOUL REINCARNATION," 
price of which is $1.50 prepaid, is published by this firm, 
and will be sent on receipt of price. Foreign, 6s sd. Messrs. 
DE Laurence^ Scott & Co. 

The End. 



THE MASTER KEY 





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IT H EM>^- 

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It^$^ the most wonderful hook ever written — the 
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